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THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMTLLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON ■ BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE WAY OF PERFECT 
LOVE 



BY 

GEORGIANA GODDARD KING 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1908 

All rights reserved 



L|SH,1I*Y of GOM'cJi^ESSy 
5 wo wODies rtetstwt!* 

SEP J7 i^oa 






Copyright, 1908, 
By GEORGIANA GODDARD KING. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1908. 



Nottuooti iPress 

J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co, 

Norwood, Mass^ U.S.A. 



TO 

ALL 

BELOVED 



CONTENTS 



[vii] 



PAGE 
I 



Argument . . • • 

The Way of Perfect Love 

Act I 5 

Act II ^7 

Act III 55 

Act IV 79 

Interpretation ^°7 



The Duke 

The Duchess, his cousin Lionella 

The Wayfarer, Peregrino, called Master Piepowder 

The Shepherd 

The Duchess's Waiting Gentlewomen 
Arianna 
Mafalda 
Orsola 
Ippolyta 
Laodomia 
Isotta 
Fiammetta 

The Spinners 
Eva 
Maddalena 

MiCAELA 



[ ^"^ 3 



ARGUMENT 

LiONELLA, the daughter of the late Duke, being un- 
touched by love, Hved a maid among her seven hand- 
maidens, seeking always to understand love's nature, 
until one time, — w^hereas the Duke, her cousin, had 
long since sought her in marriage vainly, — a Strolling 
Player drew her away to follow him over the world. 
Finding at last that he loved her less than the freedom 
of the soul, she found the courage to send him from her. 
Then she was sheltered by a Shepherd, whom — he 
worshipping her as something half-divine — she came 
to love in his turn, until the years brought by the Way- 
farer again and renewed the summons of the unknown 
and the unfettered, breaking up her life of simpler aflFec- 
tions. The Lady Lionella, thereupon, detached from 
the Wayfarer and the Shepherd ahke, and withdrawn 
alone into the deep woods, was further purified by fast- 
ing and contemplation, and prepared for her ultimate 
destiny of marriage with her cousin, the assumption of 
duties of state, the care of her father's subjects. Her 
presence in the Palace had not been missed, for her 
Waiting Gentlewomen had by turns supplied her place; 
her reappearance in the world was the signal, throughout 
the duchy, for indescribable happiness. 

The Shepherd, turning from earthly love to heavenly, 
had moved steadfastly meanwhile towards perfection; 
so Hkewise had Messer Peregrino, following, through all 
these years, with a soul emancipate, desire unattainable 
and therefore immortal. 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 



ACT I 

In the garden of the Duchesses pleasure-palace. The Duchess, 
her seven Waiting Gentlewomen. 

The Seven Gentlewomen 

Welladay! 

Love is a tyrannous lord. 
How shall we worship accord 
Or set our feet in his way? 

Lord of the world 

And of life the master! 
The stars are whirled 

In their orbits faster 
By his wings unfurled. 
fVelladay, 
Love is a tyrannous lord! 

Duchess 

My gentle hearts, what is your song ? 
Though I have worshipped now so long 
I think I have not known this love, 
But as flowers track the sun above, 
Who Hghtens many ardent lands. 
Orsola, unclasp those slender hands. 
To tell me love, from the lute's neck. 

[5] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Orsola 

Love is the flower most apt to deck 
Our beauty; when the feast is done, 
Colour, savour, ahke are gone. 

Duchess 

Silent Laodomia, over-wise, 

What wisdom smoulders in your eyes? 

Laodomia 

'Tis the amulet o'ercharactered 
Whose virtue is lost if it be read 
Even by him who hath control; 
I mean, the master of my soul. 

Duchess 

Unknit, Isotta, arched brows, 
Unveil gold-crisped locks, and rouse 
The dreaming heart its dream to tell. 

Isotta 

I do repudiate your spell : 

Love is a perfect polity 

Where two a single creature be, 

Each takes, for leave to give, — in fine 

Each is the other's only mine. 

Duchess 

Arianna of the long white throat, 

Your lauds ? 

Arianna 

I cannot praise by rote. 
I hold love's power a wanton boy's. 
Unequal to the soul's grave joys. 

[6] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duchess 

Fiammetta's lips are fine and thin, 
A live pale red; can they speak sin 
Against love's godhead ? 

FlAMMETTA 

Love is a fire, 
Madonna, immortal bright desire. 
Self-fed and unconsumed, the same 
As that bush Moyses saw aflame. 
Who knows vain love, he knows as well 
How look the Blessed watched from hell: 
Who knows love's gladness fears not God, 
He touches heaven's period. 

Duchess 

Have a care, child ! 

Orsola 

Your blown words flare 
Like lambent tongues of flame. 

Duchess 

Declare 
Of ageless love the ultimate test, 
Mafalda of the warm brown breast. 

Mafalda 

I cannot speak, L Let me sing 

An old, plain ditty; a weary thing 

That children shrill when they would dance. 

Not knowing its significance. 

Pray you^ have you seen my love 
On the road you came? 

[7] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Each one knows him as he goes 
By the badge of shame. 

So at last I hold him fast 

Past the Judgment-morning, 
Heart may break, but love will reck 

Of wrong no more than scorning. 

Ippoltya 

That way God loves us. But for me 

I'd wish my lover a spreading tree 

Whence to break buds for coronals 

Wreathing, upon high festivals, 

My hair's dense darkness: he, the while, 

At my child's play should softly smile. 

Duchess 

The wheel swings round : twice in the hour 

Has love, heighho, been but a flower! 

Maids, shall we sing, or with slim grace 

Trip on this chequered grassy space. 

In sphery turns weaving a measure ? 

Laodomia and Orsola resume their lutes, Arianna, Mafalda 
and Fiammetta stand ready to wheel in the dance, when the 
Duke approaches. 

Excellence, welcome. Is it your pleasure 
Music to hear, or converse share .? 



Duke 

Let me but watch upon your hair 

The flecks of sunlight fallen through green 

Wavering as shifts the beechen screen; 

Forget, all you, that I am by. 

[8] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duchess 

So be it. Isotta, music try. 

ISOTTA 

Now comes the May time, the wild hawks^ play-time. 
With long blithe daytime and zvarm night showers 

In tangled cover each feathered lover 

Sings one song over the white thorn flowers. 

Yield, maiden quire, to lovers empire. 
Lovers scorn is dire, ruthless his quarrel. 

Syrinx a reed is, Adon to bleed is. 

All Daphne's speed is to fruitless laurel. 



Duchess 

Is there no word to-day but love ? 

Duke 

What better could we reason of? 

Duchess 

Have you known his radiant face 
Or tasted the dew of his grace ? 
Tell me what signs declare him, 
W^ho his father, who bare him, 
What his service, and all 
Of his solemn ritual. 
The high doctrine unfold! 

Duke 

It is a doctrine old: 

It is a rule austere. 

Princess, have you no fear ? 

These immortal mysteries 

Are not for laughter-litten eyes. 

[9] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duchess 

We are grave disciples, who would win 

To adept's place. 

Ippolyta 

Ere he begin, 
Maidens, close in at either hand 
Like curving wings. 

to D 

Duchess 

There, Duke, you stand. 

Duke 

How can man's words, that change and shiver 
Like stormy sunshine on a river, 
That splendour-winged spirit compel, 
Inaccessible, unalterable, 
Express the unravished constancy 
Set above time and change on high ? 
Love, of man's heritage, only is free 
From the stress of mutability. 

Duchess 

Yet a hard saying. Master, this. 

Are all those passions named amiss 

That like the moon wax and grow lean, 

Or, moon-like, have their image seen 

In dimpled spring and lucent pool ? 

Girls, are these heretics of love's school ? 

Arianna 

Rather, the right initiate. 

No traitor to love's high estate, 

[10] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Loves not the incomparable She, 
But beauty, wheresoe'er that be. 
Some are love's lovers, and can that lie 
In a white hand, or a quick eye ? 

Duchess 

Let me rehearse a little. So 

Not shadowing hair nor temples' snow 

Love men, but Beauty, which abides 

In us some fleeting halcyon-tides: 

Not ardour, honour, loyalty, 

Though for a scruple a maid should die, 

Foster, but love, who nests perhaps 

A season in these silken laps. 

Till the poor perishing flesh is dust ? 

Amen, if so believe I must ! 

A moment stay. Lend me your hands. 

Sweethearts : these weary plaits and strands 

Intricate coiled of heavy hair, 

Make my head ache. Child, loose that; there. . 

Duke 

O jewel of pearl and sand-searched gold 

Wrought by dead craftsmen for some old 

Dead princess, eastward of the sun. 

And deftly cusped and wrought upon 

With stones of all the bland bow's colours seven ! 

O virgin sunflower in the top of heaven. 

With seven star-flowers ringed ! O harmony 

That complicates all webs of melody ! 

Lift up your hearts. Let faith approve: 

Behold the way of perfect love ! 

Love, first begotten of all created things, 

[II] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Above the void hung on strong brooding wings 

Till light sprang up, and straight from love and light 

Were earth and heaven born, and day and night; 

Green cranny-moss, and thousand-year-old tree, 

And all the swift folk of the air and sea ; 

The furry tribes; and man, that sole knows why 

He has been born — which is to love, and die. 

The starry flock their orbits impHcate 

Hold, amid which the great sun moves in state; 

By sweet compulsion, each constraining each. 

They weave across the skies their soundless speech. 

The sad white moon wanders the earth around. 

While as she goes blue ocean breaks his bound 

To follow, and through all the secular quest 

To her pulse heaves his vast tumultuous breast. 

Fiammetta, Isotta, Laodomia, 

Mafalda, Arianna, Orsola, 

Ippolyta, and — great and graciciis one. 

Lioness coloured of the tropic sun. 

Superb — Lionella, give me a graver mind, 

For this before was but of love of kind. 

Unfit your ears to hear, my lips to tell. 

Of the Hght loves in marish-pools that dwell. 

Or what gross sorts frequent the trough and mire. 

Upward tends love, part of the primal fire 

Which streams, incorporal flame, in the noble heart, 

Being all in heaven and all in every part. 

Loveliness, equal in her heavenly birth. 

Do ye not encounter errant over earth 

Having donned mortal vesture ? What, do your eyes 

Repeat their green light from terrestrial skies ? 

Then, love goes seeking his immortal twin. 

And the unimagined form he sees her in 

[12] 



i\ 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Reverent he worships straight; yet if thereafter 

What seemed all wisdom prove but theme for laughter, 

What seemed clear fire prove but painted glass, 

Nought rests for love but wearily to pass 

Upon his timeless pilgrimage, and pray 

That beauty unearthly yet may cross his way; 

For, one at fiist with beauty, he holds the quest 

Till the two souls, made one soul, shall find rest. 

So much for love imperfect, how it gains 

Perfection. Now of perfect love remains. 

You have grieved for flesh, that pales and falls to dust, 

But what is patience, lady, what is trust. 

But the flesh worshipping a bodiless power 

In faith that at the fixed, the ultimate hour, 

He entering fills the shrine with so great glory 

That all pain past is a forgotten story. 

Yea, doth augment delight, as strings harsh-sounding 

Mix into music sweetness more abounding ? 

Some say, a bitter lordship is this same. 

Calling his servants wan-hope, worldly shame. 

And drowsy grief, and lidless vain desire. 

And blind death : — these adore a devil, a fire 

Earth-kindled, gluttonous as the ravening wave. 

No man is free that owns a single slave. 

The emperor said, nor rich, but who hath nought, 

Nor he at peace who can be pricked in aught. 

And therefore perfect love must ever be 

A beggar gaunt, living on charity. 

Craving no thing of right but all of pity. 

A beggar? No; throned, from his royal city 

He reigns to grant, and all the spoils of sense 

He lavishes of his magnificence: 

And all the spirit's splendours he will shower 

1 13] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Idly as one of you ruffles a flower : 
To crown with goods is his : taking, be sure, 
His magnanimity could not endure. 
Mark, he does more. To the Beloved he 
Does of free will, true service, and is free. 
Even as he laid deHght and all sweet things 
At the dear feet, so now desire he brings. 
And last, the will : and having put that off 
Goes healed and free. Say, is not love enough ? 

Duchess 

Highness, you have praised royally, 
Gracing your subject. Say not ye 
So, maidens seven ? 

The Seven 

We had not thought 
Dear lord, to be so nobly taught. 

Duchess 

What, you change colour, you are not well ? 

Duke 

Madonna, the ancient miracle; 

The priest who speaks the consecration 

Must shrink before the revelation 

Of very God between his hands : 

Let him confirm who understands. 

My soul is shaken — permit I go. 

Duchess 

Cousin, and would you leave us so, 
With many fine points yet unraised 
And many an attribute unpraised ? 

[H] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duke 

Pity! Ah, cousin, I love in vain, 
And love at ease is a dear pain. 
But love at uttermost, agony. 
Suffering its swift ascendency, 
I pray, dear ladies, for your talk 
All delicate pleasures as you walk. 

He goes slowly down the cypress alley. 

Duchess 

Fiammetta, take the lute and sing. 

FlAMMETTA 

Madonna, what ? 

Duchess 

Some quiet thing. 

Fiammetta 

Dear to the sailor-kings. 

Bronze-bearded, steadfast-hearted. 
Oars* dash, when galley swirigs 

Black through the grey waves parted. 
But they said : ''Make the cove 
Where breathes a moonless grove. 

And larks hang glad 
0\r pebbly pools and sweet; 
He sickens with the heat. 
Our little lad:' 

The Seven 

Sto they call, the gold-browed kings, 
Hylas, Hylas, Hylas! clear; 

[15] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

And Alcides* great voice rings, — 
For he loved the brown child dear. 

FlAMMETTA 

He left the blue profound 

To follow winding valleys ; 
He lost the surfs faint sound 

In aspen-shivering alleys. 
Beside the freshes cold 
He found white fingers hold 

His brown hand hot; 
He heard an elfin song; 
The dark kings waited long 
But he came not. 

The Seven 

Yet they call him from the shore, 

Hylas, Hylas, Hylas! thrice; 
But Alcides sails no more. 

Remembering the drowned child's eyes. 

Duchess 

I thank you, sweet. The sun is low, 

Between the orchard trees a-row 

The warm gold washes. Listen, a swell 

Of hushed notes, very tuneable ! 

Look out, Mafalda, through the trees. 

Laodomia 

Stay, 'twixt the rows of cypresses 

One comes, or by the yew-tree arch. 

Duchess 

The voice is like the rain in March. 

[i6] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Orsola 

He loiters by the ragged fir. 

Mafalda 

Madonna, 'tis a lute-player 

With a strange-fashioned silver lute. 

Ippolyta 

And hark, the nightingales are mute ! 

FlAMMETTA 

A dark rose opens its moth-kissed leaves. 

PlEPOV^DER 

Something calls and whispers, along the city street. 
Through shrill cries of children and soft stir of feet. 
And makes my blood to quicken and makes my flesh to pine. 
The mountains are calling; the winds wake the pine. 

Arianna 

Madonna Lionella walks here eves, 

Wayfarer. 

Laodomia 

If you are astray 
Let us two set you in your way. 

Piepowder 

The turf its dewy cool preferred, 
And dusty feet unwitting erred. 
Yet, since you pardon their offence, 
Will you not, gracious handmaidens, 
Or will her Highness, leave bestow, 
To end singing before I go ? 

[17] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LO\T 

Fl\mmetta 

Madonna — if it be not too long! 

D-CHZ55 

Fetch him, Fiamnierta. Friend, your son^. 

PlEPO^iVDER 

Past the qui-Jiring poplars that tell of Ziz:--r ^.czr 

The long road is sleeping, the ^hite rzal is cUnr. 

T^et scent and touch can summon, afar from c-^zoz and tree. 

The deep boom of surges, the grey naste oj sci. 

S'JL'eet to dream and linger, in zvindless orchard close. 
On bright hrmvs of ladies to garland the rose, 
Bui all the time are gleaming, beyond this little iLorld, 
The still lizht of planets and the star-su:arms 'ujhirled. 

Duchess 

What are voa, and what make you here so late 

That sill^'Sowers and stocks shake out their myrrh, 
Down all our pleasaunce alleys hushed and strait. 
Towards a dead sun, O stany voyager : 

Piepowder 

You are pleased to mock me. Excellence, 

Yet know me, bv the eWdence 

Of dust\- feet and tireless heart. 

Free of the desert as the mart. 

I have marched in half a score of wars 

In this flesh, or among the stars 

Before I put on humdrum clay. 

Ippolyta 

You are sure ? 

[i8] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

Nay, doth not Plato say ? 
Sadly, madonna, I am a poor 
Strolling player of grave allure : 
Your steward gave me liberty 
That I and my quaint company 
Might in the city square rehearse 
An excellent comedy in verse, 
This evening, after compline said. 
Leaving the palace, I was led 
Of my kind genius to this spot. 
Your beauteous Grace can blame it not ? 

Laodomia 

You are the mocker, as I think. 

Piepowder 

Good sweet, should wisdom never wink ? 

Orsola 

Your fingers on the instrument 

Followed well where the sweet voice went. 

Piepowder 

God gave to a hand dexterity, 

And unto feet inveteracy, 

And to a spirit the wind's will, 

To blow all ways but ne'er be still. 

Duchess 

Touch at your pleasure the Hght string. 

Piepowder 

Then hear more praise of wandering. 

[19] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

A man called Dante, I have heard, 

Once ranged the country-side, 
He knew to dawn's mysterious word 

What drowsy birds replied; 

He knew the deep seci s voice, its gleams 

And tremulous lights afar. 
When he lay down at night, in dreams 

He tramped from star to star. 

Arianna 

Such shadowy grace I have not seen; 
Yet marred a Httle, and worn keen, 
The swart, boy's face. 

Ippolyta 

The dense short hair 
Blown back by the damp evening air 
Is struck with grey. 

Orsola 

To a hawk belong 
Those lean, brown, restless talons strong. 

Mafalda 

A dangerous creature, at the last. 

As are the Hons you keep fast 

Down in the courtyard cage: they pace 

With that same easy shambling grace. 

Duchess 

His eyes are like a windy sky. 

[20] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Laodomia 

And low he speaks, and subtilely, 

Though he may say a forthright thing. 

ISOTTA 

His chance look leaves me shivering. 
May he not go ? The Hght is gone. 

FlAMMETTA 

Fie, sweet ! Madonna, I think him one 
Whom human passion cannot hold; 
For he has tasted love more old — 
The strong embrace of the warm earth. 

Arianna 

His soul was free before time's birth, 
And dimly that lost freedom yet 
Seeks, for it cannot quite forget. 

Duchess 

Dreamers, strange talk ! The gathering dark 

Creeps in our brains; the wide hushed park 

Lies glimmering; whitely, a bough beneath, 

Shine lilies; all things hold their breath. 

Yet have they something to declare. 

Perhaps the silent lute-player 

Can tell what lies at evening's heart. 

While I demand, walk you apart. 

The Seven 

Love is a tyrannous lord — 
How shall we worship accord? 
Welladay! 

[21] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

They go away where the Duke went. 

Duchess 

Is it so good, your wandering way ? 

Piepowder 

Its excellency how shall I say ? 

Great sorrows and deep joys are rife; 

One in the brimming cup of life 

Passion with anguish interfuses: 

All the wide various world one uses. 

In lonely farms where shepherds keep 

To lie a night among the sheep; 

On the warm-smeUing earth, next tide; 

A third, the kindly hearth beside 

In Httle towns, or, four-deep, share 

The church steps on the city square; — 

After the drum in tattered smock. 

Bare-head, bare-foot, when children flock, 

As their frail hands our finery turn, 

And treble voices hum, to learn 

Their fleeting griefs; among themselves 

What women talk by tens and twelves 

Above the nuzzling babe; to know 

What tanned men brood on, all the slow 

Hot noontide 'neath the berried hedge; 

Yea, what the wren says in the sedge. 

What the hot thunder calls aloud 

When rose-red lightning decks the cloud: 

This is the wisdom, this the part 

Of dusty-foot and restless-heart. 

Duchess 

Are you not tired ? 

[22] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

How should he be 
Whose bed is under every tree ? 

Duchess 
Nor lone ? 

Piepowder 

He never alien 
Who, world-unwearied, returns to men. 

Duchess 

Nor loth to fare companionless? 

Piepowder 

The stars can counsel and can bless. 

Duchess 

Ah, might I toil and grieve and know, 
Facing the noon sun and the snow, 
A^nd search out God's imaginings. 
And live the Hfe of humble things. 
Ah, might I follow the wind's will ! 

Piepowder 

Madonna, just across the hill. 

Where the last amber yet Hes dark. 

Waits the wide world, and calls you — hark ! 

The sun shall be your comrade staunch. 

For your white feet the moon shall blanch 

The powdery road, and winds shall tell 

A song in speech unutterable. 

If your heart speed you straight and right 

[23] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Come out with me into the night 
And learn what Hfe may live the free, 
And what, madonna, love may be. 

Duchess 

The mounting twilight lies so thick 

My eyes are dizzy, my bosom is quick. 

Yet rumour of love's name rings round me — 

Piepowder 

Is love not of the company ? 

I heard his wings winnowing the air, 

I felt the touch of floating hair — 

Ah, come with me the way of love ! 

Duchess 

You draw me, as adamant should move. 

Piepowder 
Breath of the night, on the shimmering tresses 
That shroud the Beloved, shake skyey caresses ; 

For the fountain once sealed is a brook to meander ; 
For the ivory tower has unloosed its strong gateway 
That love, the late comer, may take his throne straightway ; 

For the garden enclosed is a pleasaunce to wander 
Where August shall lead us afield with her far light; 
And through the long season of snowfall and starlight 

One shall lie in my breast like a ball of pomander. 

Duchess 

Your voice like the autumnal winds 
Troubled my soul, but your face blinds 
Eyes which till now had but the sun 
To spend their steadfast gazing on. 

[24] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

O heavy-headed gold sunflower, 

Perfect exponent of love's power, 

Light risen on me, I should be loth 

Us two to wrong with slavish oath. 

Shall I not see you kind and true 

So long as I am dear to you ? 

And you, too, find my loyalty 

Of like date with my constancy ? 

And may my death's day be that date! 

How Hke you honest wooing, mate ? 

Duchess 

Sir, I am yours, and to your say 

Subject, but would my master pray, 

Since even an hour can work such change 

That the old, sloughed-ofF life looks strange, 

Unless he, standing here to-night. 

With heart and spirit love me quite 

And altogether and utterly. 

That straightway he depart from me. 

Yea, leave his handmaid here behind. 

Piepowder 

O comrade after my own mind. 

The noble blood runs quick and bright ! 

Stoop downward from your towering height 

Proud spirit poised beyond my reach, 

Whom I love past the use of speech. 

Even as the tossed sea loves the moon, 

As the struck lute the lilting tune. 

As the for-wearied traveller, rest. 

[25] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

And this high heart, that shakes your breast 
So stormily, is love's celebrant. 

Duchess 

Look you, I am quite ignorant 

Of love. The sanguine face on me 

Lightened not, I was sick to see. 

Men said he walked where my feet strayed; 

His splendours ofttimes have affrayed 

My tender foolish handmaidens. 

And his voice tuned to eloquence 

Of hi^h converse even at this noon 

A noble spirit; then see, how soon 

The long-desired rises in view, 

And refluent love is mine, in you. 

Piepowder 

Be to him, princess, rather than me. 

Made over in perpetuity. 

Gravely, then, seal the comradeship, 

Gentle fellow, give pomp the sHp, 

And come, through grasses drenched and chill. 

By a few stars, across the hill. 

Voices of the Seven Gentlewomen 
Well ad ay I 
How shall our feet hiow his way? 

He lays on the marble seat from which the Duchess has risen, 
her embroidered mantle, neatly folded, and on it the changing 
jewel from her brow and her wrought girdle set around with seven 
precious stones. They go through the park toward the wall of 
the orchard. 

[26] 



ACT II 

The city square. Down a street running into it the Duchess 
comes to sit on the edge of the fountain; her hair is cropped and 
curly, in the tight bodice and short skirt of a haladine she looks 
very slight and small. Piepowder comes in search of her. 

Duchess 

Slant-shuttered windows blink no eye, 

Long street and moon-illumined sky 

Are bright and empty; the bleared moon 

Will peer above the house-fronts soon; 

Already 'tis a sickly day. 

'Twixt wall and wall runs pavement grey: 

The fountain, splashing in the still. 

Makes my heart beat Hke something ill. 

What passed ? A crouching cat, the clear 

Deserted middle square by fear 

Debarred, sent skulking three sides round. 

Hark ! Those are loitering steps. The sound 

Rings on the century-trodden stone. 

And how the man looks small and lone ! 

Dear God, is it you ? 

Piepowder 

In what a fright ! 
You must not run away at night, 
Child. You have to sup and sleep. You know 
To-morrow again westward we go. 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duchess 

My friend, suppose I stay behind ? 

Piepowder 

Poor tired small creature, do you find 

The highway rougher than once was 

Turf crocus-fretted ? Courage ! The ass 

Shall carry you the livelong day. 

Vine-wreathed and elm-girt, the swift way 

Runs hillward, till blue crests begin 

To lift as twihght closes in. 

And the moonrise will bring them near. 

Duchess 

O, I am sick of road and gear ! 
What is a moon when the feet ache, 
Or hills to hinder a heart to break ? 

Piepowder 

Grave, this. What ails my gallant heart ? 

Duchess 

So ill I fit the player's part; 

Unapt for wrangling and for spite. 

I danced, you know, sadly to-night, 

And the girls laughed, well pleased. They think, 

Rightly, I scarce earn meat and drink. 

Piepowder 

Say, from your beauties' light they shrink. 

Duchess 

And when at evening, over-spent, 
We make an inn, the rest, intent 
On common good, who dress and lay 

[28] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

The common meal, put me away. 
I spoil good food ; — I may not sit, 
Even, to twirl the tardy spit. 

Piepowder 

True: soft hands these, for toil unfit. 

Duchess 

For clumsiest groom's work all unable, 
Strength lacking even to clean the stable 
Or fetch foul water and musty hay 
To the rough ass, patient and grey. 

Piepowder 

That not till I am fast in clay. 

Duchess 

Scorn is the web, and pain the woof. 

I am not sullen at reproof. 

But I grow dull as I do ill. 

And my part of Parthenophil 

Yourself have blamed, though when rehearsed 

It was a pretty thing at first. 

Piepowder 

Well-grown your brood, though secret nursed. 

Yet have you other griefs to show ? 

Duchess 

My very dear, I can but go. 

Piepowder 

Why, troubled-heart, I am sick and sorry 

[29] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

That I marked not, to mend, this worry. 
Kissing your hot face weary, I swear 
It has done with sawdust and with glare. 
For we will turn our backs on men 
And learn the hill-wind's word again, 
And smell the curling blue wood-smoke 
Of dales, and shelter with grim folk 
Where nets dry brown along the beach. 
In cities loud with outland speech. 
Close-barred within whose roadstead He 
Tall masts against a cold green sky. 
Shall we not lodge, and taste in these 
Odours and rumours of far seas 
Filling the narrow streets .? And, blown 
Into your lap from every zone. 
Find jade and topaz; cups of price. 
Rock-crystal, brimmed with scent and spice; 
Ambers and ivories; broidery, wrought 
Seed-pearl on gossamer; or new-caught 
Pale Indian apes with pink small paws, 
Piteous and docile; blue macaws 
Prisoned in gilded wires; or, prime 
And spoil of unguessed sunset-clime. 
Gay feather-woven cloaks, your sleep 
To cover, and — why, child ! 

Duchess 

I weep 
Being, as just now you rightly said, 
Aweary and all uncomforted. 

Piepowder 

Comfort can you lack whilst I love ? 

[30] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duchess 

It is just that my grief is of. 

Piepowder 

Take then my hoarded offering! 
Though my heart be a tameless thing, 
And in the long glad years may range, 
Yet something is in me will not change 
For you, I think, until I die. 

Duchess 

Not yet assuaged the wailful cry 

At heart. 

Piepowder 

Then you grow different. 

Duchess 

I could not, else, know all love meant, 
Never ! — for hourly knowledge grows : 
Thence, love; my breast cannot enclose 
All, yet all speech alike is vain. 

Piepowder 

Alas, beloved, the world-old pain ! 
For the wind's will is strong desire's. 
Boundless and tameless, yet flesh tires, 
And sometimes, in the stress, turns just 
A piteous handful of blown dust. 
And but the soul austerely bent 
To find, or do without, content, 
Living in ice or else in fire. 
Renouncement, or unquenched desire, 

[31] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Moves unafraid, looking not back, 
And free, along the viewless track. 

Duchess 

I cannot follow these high things. 
I only know a worm that stings 
Evermore, evermore my heart. 

Piepowder 

Sweet silent comrade, every smart 

Is eased in telling. 

Duchess 

I do not know. 
Quick, do you love me ? 

Piepowder 

I love you so 
That your touch starts and stays my blood. 
Your look can rule song's tide in flood; 
That absence turns rich summer's height 
Into a blanched Saint Lucy's night; 
That the thronged world of sound and seeing 
Is but your flesh, your breath, your being. 

Duchess 

Yet in all time I shall not tell 

The rhythm of your faint pulse's swell; 

Nor learn the thoughts, secure and plain 

To read, that scurry through your brain. 

Passions that throb and lapse in me 

Your vision intent shall never see. 

Nor your heart taste my sorrow's sharp 

Savour; were my deep soul a harp 

[32] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Under your fingers quivering, 

You could not feel nor hear one string. 

O, I am cold and very lonely. 

Piepowder 

I think great spirits, madonna, only, 

Have known your pain, and known no cure. 

Mortality can but endure. 

Yet though man have no anodyne 

A counter-passion I divine : 

If I can give not to my brother 

My life, nor life take of another — 

By virtue of that, unalterably 

While the soul burn the soul is free. 

Duchess 

Still I am lonely, and still cold. 

See, dawn has come and made us old. 

Reddened that lamp, and turned the square 

Into a horrible ghosts' lair. 

I can have courage, and go on 

My manifest way, and go alone. 

While I could bear no longer, now, 

To watch your sleep, not knowing how 

Wanders the soul I cannot follow 

Through that dream-world where all is hollow, 

A strong straight sword-cut should heal well, 

And you have a medicinal spell. 

And I can nurse my proper wound : 

So where the suns go, you are bound. 

Piepowder 

How can I go ? My limbs are weak 

With new grief. Though I cannot speak, 

[33] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

With face averse must I get hence, 
Steadfast in hard obedience ? 
If the god utters who shall gainsay ? 
The wisdom on your hps to-day, 
The courage of your princely soul. 
Carry you on safe to the goal. . . . 
Child, child, I cannot let you go ! . . . 
Princess, your dog you would not so 
Turn off, when he had shared your meat 
And slept so long time at your feet ! 
Across your door to He like him — 

Duchess 

My strength sickens, the light grows dim, 
There is no nice farewell to take. 
Nay, even for human kindness' sake. 
For love's own, touch me never again. 
Lest I turn weak with the dear pain 
As of old time, and suck sweet death 
Into faint veins with every breath. 

Piepowder 

Nay, since we love, silence is best. 

Piepowder goes hack down the street. 

Duchess 

I am so weary I can rest. 

Yet ere I sleep, what prayer to say ? 

Because I sent my love away 

For my love's sake, God, from my heart, 

Lest it should learn the servile art 

To bind a tameless creature, then, 

Make me, dear God, forget! Amen. 

[34] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

She sleeps. The square fills up with people and the day 
goes on. 

The Merchants' Call 

Come buy, white maids, come buy, come buy! 
Laces, fans, and broidered gloves. 

Ribbons for true-lovers^ knots. 
Cushions stuffed with down of doves, 
Roses' balm distilled, and pots 
Brimmed with orient philtery. 
Come buy, come buy! 

Come buy, tall lads, come buy, come buy! 
Damasked stuffs for a pretty neighbour. 

Lawn as light as April air. 
And the spinning worm's bright labour; 
Corals to bind up her hair, 
Owches to enchant her eye. 
Come buy, come buy! 

The Comedians Pass 

Here to-day 

And gone to-morrow ; 
While we stay 

A fig for sorrow ! 
Wine IS bright, 

A grey eye brighter; 
Largess sweet, 

A white girl sweeter; 
Whom we meet 

We clip and greet her : 
Heart is light 

When purse is lighter^ 

[35] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

We who borrow 

Never pay^ 
For to-morrow 

Is not to-day. 

From the Church a Litany 

For long years of aspiration. 
For high strength of concentration. 
For calm age^s contemplation, 
Non nobis, Domine. 

For the end of peaceful days. 
For the coffin crowned with bays. 
For the after-comers* praise, 
Non nobis, Domine. 

Saviour, by thy dear-bought power. 
Under which fallen spirits cower. 
Keep us at the mortal hour, 

Non nobis, Domine — 

From the hungry worm^s desires. 
From the lust that never tires. 
From the sharp, mysterious fires — 
Non nobis, Domine ! 

The ducal party passes, from hunting. Three spinners, on 
the fountain steps, gossip as the spindle twirls. 

MiCAELA 

The hunt comes empty-handed home. 

Eva 

Yet the good horses sweated. 

[36] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

MiCAELA 

Some 
Did not uncouple, I think, at all; 
Trimly step out the huntsmen tall. 
That foremost brace of greyhounds lean 
In the scarlet leash — their paws are clean. 

Eva 

The hawks sit, sulky, on their frame, 
The Duke — 

Maddalena 

As sulky, twice as tame; 
Yet the old bright splendour flashes still. 

MiCAELA 

Never the same since she fell ill. 
Our lady, sweet Lionella. 

Maddalena 

Tutt — ! 

Eva 

She is his uncle's child. 

Maddalena 

Aye, but — ! 
I mind the christening — dukes pell-mell ! 
Dear Christ, he loved her mother well ! 

Eva 

As our duke loves this sunnier head. 

[37] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

MiCAELA 

Abundant time they have had to wed, 
Being affianced how long since 
The Hfetime of our late brave prince ! 
Some lack of love must somewhere be. 

Maddalena 

Of this remediless malady 

She sickened a great while ago. 

Eva 

Nay, not so long, neighbour, not so ! 

Maddalena 

Will you the whole tale I relate ? 
I have it from inside the great 
Shut palace where she darkened Hes. 
'Twas one of countless fantasies 
Her waiting gentlewomen should 
Be seven in number, wise as good, 
And chaste as witty, by a word 
Called from the stars. 

Eva 

Pleiads ? 

MiCAELA I heard 

That sisterhood was one time seven. 
But six walk now the wintry heaven : 
One fell. 

Maddalena 

And of the princess* band 
— Who loved like sisters, understand — 
One loved outside the ring, and fell. 

[38] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Eva 
Which one ? 

Maddalena 

Nay, I — I cannot tell : 
One told me not. But she so grieved 
For her of whom was heaven bereaved 
Heart-stricken she sank, and, laid abed, 
She sleeps there like one newly dead. 
And scarcely swallows, and cannot speak, 
And 'twixt the linen and her cheek 
Is no more difference, than show 
The w^hite narcissus-cups on snow. 
And you may mark in April weather 
When the six ladies walk together. 
How they go veiled, as mourning her 
That fled, and her that cannot stir 
Outside her one-time pleasure-palace. 

MiCAELA 

They go Hke doves, so void of maHce 
Their meek distress, that her their shame 
As if among them still, they name. 

Eva 

Methinks not always cloistered they, 

For sometimes by the hilly way 

That runs above the park, I have crossed. 

Where, deep retired, in boskage lost 

And in the dusk of twilight air, 

I have seen Ippolyta's black hair. 

Maddalena 

Aye, they come forth; for I espied 

At mass last week, half turned aside, 

[3Q] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Grave Arianna's slender throat 
Mid the court folk. I took no note, 
Not looking for her out of door. 

Eva 

When last old rose-hued moon swung o'er 
The dawning world, I woke and went 
To pick cool mushrooms, dew-besprent. 
From the oozy meadow; in startled view, 
A girl, gathering hoary dew 
To fill a vial ere the sun rise. 
Lifted Laodomia's strange green eyes 
Like precious stones men singing praise. 

MiCAELA 

An hour since, in this market-place 
I knew a creature slight; it turned; 
Fiammetta's rose-pale beauty burned 
Through her white veil like flames through glass. 

Maddalena 

And where the Eastern merchant was 

I have watched Orsola's long white hands 

Fingering the stuffs from Indian lands. 

Eva 

Will you not laugh, or think I dream, 
If I say on ? I sought the stream 
One amethyst noon, beyond the hill. 
For the heat's sake, to bathe in still 
Cool water, and as I lay along 
Hearing its limpid under-song. 
Screened by thick grasses, some one came 

[40] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

To dip slim hands. I lay for shame 

Couched, seeing a silken petticoat. 

A white web, wind-blown, chanced to float 

My way, a little murmuring cry 

Pursued it, then a splash close by, 

A white arm reaching, and through the boughs 

I saw Isotta's pencilled brows. 

"It is wet," I cried, **but safely here." 

She was sped thence, Hke a brown deer 

That feeds on lilies in a lake. 

I keep the white thing for her sake. 

Maddalena 

Where the dames drag their purfled dress 

Along the wrought stone terraces, 

I watch them evenings through the grate. 

And one I have remarked of late 

Nearer the gates, to shun the rest. 

And known Mafalda's grieving breast. 

MiCAELA 

Have we not named the seven names o'er 
Although one girl is here no more ? 
There is enchantment in this thing. 

Maddalena 

No ill could soil our lady's wing; 

It is white magic if 'tis aught. 

Eva 

I shall not tire myself v/ith thought 
About great folk who are not as we. 
The shadows all are shrunken; see, 
One lies here sleep-sequestered still. 

[41] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Maddalena 

Such sleep as poppy-heads distil. 

MiCAELA 

Let her sleep on, poor lass. 

Eva 

I fear 
Her mates stole off and left her here : 
I will come back for her ere night. 

Maddalena 

Come now; the pavement waves with light. 

Micaela 

Touch her. She does not wake, yet yields; 

So men sleep, after stricken fields. 

Maddalena 

So women, when their hearts are eased. 

Eva 

Babes, too, that sob and are appeased. 

Noon goes over the silent square. Then the Duchess stirs 
and rises. 

Duchess 

I dreamed I lost the fervid stone 
Upon my brow that binds my hair; 
I dreamed I lost the gold-wrought zone 

[4J] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Bossed with clear jewels, high ladies wear; 

And, outcast from my maiden throne. 

Left my furred robe I knew not where. 

What idle pain a dream may cost, 

To think that pride and place were lost ! 

Mafalda, Isotta, Orsola, 

Fiammetta and Ippolyta, 

Arianna, Laodomia ! 

I thought to tell my handmaidens 

A strange dream, but they lie far hence, 

Cool in white tissue of distant looms. 

In marble-paven and arras'd rooms. 

Sharp, breathless light brims up the square, 

Rose-red houses beat back fierce air, 

But the high fountain-basin flings 

Upward in brilliant waverings 

A slender shaft; the crystal breaks; 

While the white pillar turns and shakes 

Drops tinkle and fall; softly they drip 

To dim stone tank from brazen lip. 

I have slept well. Where shall I turn. 

Where moons strike not nor suns do burn ? 

I have, I think, a sleepy will. . . . 

What music comes so sweet and shrill .? 

What is that Httle rusthng sound 

Like dead leaves hurried along the ground 

By autumn winds or through the street 

Harried in droves ? Lo, tiny feet 

Toiling and pressing, an anxious stream 

Of silky goats comes — white as cream, 

Brown as a moth, or tanned and shagged; 

This has a curled horn, that is ragged. 



[43 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

The shepherd follows his goats, his pipe at his lips to resume 
the tune; he pauses on seeing the Duchess. The goats push up 
to the fountain and he helps them drink from the conduit below, 
but blindly; having drunk, the little creatures lie down in such 
thin lines of shade as they can find, all along under the wall 
of'the church. 

Shepherd 

Her face is the moonlit air, 

Her touch is the cold sea foam; 
I have not kissed her cloudy hair. 

Nor seen quick tears her eyelids brighten; 
But when the sun has changed his latr 

And the last pilgrim-bird is home. 
Shall I not know how she is fair. 

While the warm dark shall laugh and lighten ? 

Duchess 

What make you, shepherd, here ? More sweet 
Your upland pastures, screened from heat 
By chestnuts, and your calm employs. 

Shepherd 

O hush not yet that singing voice ! 

let those emeralds, as in dreams 

1 have prayed, bend on me their beams 
Spirit-enkindling, yet a while ! 

And let that slow mysterious smile 
Inscrutable, just curve the cheek, 
The lids just narrow, as if you seek 
Waters that run deep under ground 
Or gems rock-bosomed. I have found 

[44] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

In the dim woods' most silent seat 

Where noonday dew has splashed my feet, 

Buds and leaves fallen as you passed through. 

You are a witch-lady, are not you ? 

Or are you, as the priests complain. 

After your exile come again. 

One of the great lost goddesses. 

Vineyard and tilth to touch and bless 

In August, and the orchard croft 

In March ? I have hung you garlands oft 

Of purple clover and silvery thyme. 

And sere oak-boughs in fall, with rime 

O'er-whitened, wreaths in spring-time shed. 

Of the rathe cyclamen's troubled red 

Fashioned, to win your grace for men. 

Are you in very presence, then. 

The mighty Mother, care-beguiled. 

Or are, indeed, her ravished child. 

The wedded maid, come back to share 

For the sweet season, the warm, swift air, 

And the remembered light of flowers ? 

Duchess 

What, did I climb, these drowsy hours, 

The dark road, thronged with shadows grey, 

From the faint under-world away 

Into large daylight and the breath 

Of life that never questioneth ? 

Your eyelids beat, lad ! 

Shepherd 

O, benign 
Lighten on me, Monna Proserpine! 

[45] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duchess 

I am no divine thing, but a girl. 

Shepherd 

You set my sun-steeped brain awhirl! 

Then I may kiss, maybe, your feet. 

And, without anger, hands so sweet 

My reverent Hps do wrong them ? Bear 

I pray with patience, unaware 

If I am clumsy and amiss; 

I have had but hyacinths to kiss. 

And brown soft cubs, and the quick breasts 

That quiver in squirrels' holes, and nests 

Of bright-eyed friendly singing-birds. 

Look you, I have not any words, 

My poor throat cannot even sing. 

Only my arms, that quicken and cling 

Around you, strong and fast enlaced. 

While I kneel here, hold you embraced. 

Speak not now, stir not, only smile. 

You are a spray-dashed, flower-flecked isle, 

And I the circling mountain brook. 

There is a kindness in your look 

That veils its lightning: let me cool 

My forehead in your pitiful 

Soft hands, or touch your fragrant dress 

To ease my bosom's new distress. 

Duchess 

A delicate lord is love, wooing of voice. 

Mild-eyed and subtle-spoken; 
But sanguine-hearted, sleepless : for his toys 

Tossing mens hearts till broken. 

[46] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

While in his footprint set 

I found his aspect sweet; 
Now I would fain forget 

Where trod his charmed feet. 

Shepherd 

White throat that exquisitely throbs, 

Even your music some grace robs 

From the pure curve; your cheek's thin line 

Is as the jonquil's chaHce fine. 

And all your honey-coloured hair 

Is warm and live, its curls ensnare 

The sun, a nest of spiceries. 

Though the curved lashes veil your eyes, 

Large, bright, belov^, a slow tear sHps. 

The music burns between your Hps : 

Like a fruit smeUing of the south, 

Like a pomegranate is your mouth, 

I hunger and fear to taste thereof 

Lest I die. Lo you, this is love ! . . . 

My pipe, where is it ? Sweet flock, awake ! 

Green waits your pasture by the lake. 

Creature benign, come home with these 

To where, beneath dense chestnut trees. 

Girt in by wattled cotes for sheep. 

The rough, wise dogs shall guard your sleep. 

You are not loth to climb the pass ? 

So thick the pines, so tall the grass, 

That men come never from below. 

Duchess 

Shepherd, I am content to go. 

I think all voices there will cease. 

And but one name be worshipped — peace. 

[47] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 



They go out. The market begins again. 

The Merchants Importunate 

Come buy, sweethearts, come buy, come buy! 
Here be dainties sold by measure, 
Eyes* delight and passion s treasure, 
Touth is taken in change for pleasure. 
Come buy of us, come buy I 

Come buy, good sir; bright dame, come buy! 
Why ere nightfall be a sleeper? 
Goods are tarnished but are cheaper; 
Feed flesh full, earth soon shall keep her! 
Come buy at last, come buy! 



A Candle-light Hymn 

Lord, we have wrought and praised thee since red morn. 

And now the sun goes down : 
The burthen and the day's long heat are borne, 

Lights quicken through the town. 
Thick in the quiet air soft shadows creep. 

Swift darkness is anear; 
Sun of Righteousness, lighten our sleep. 

And keep our hearts from fear ! 

The spinners return in the late twilight. 

Maddalena 

I wish the sleeper that is gone 
Find nothing harder than a stone 
To lay her tired gold head upon. 

[48] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Eva 

Man's days are a child's feverish dreams 
Who in the market sleeps, and deems 
That the sole real, which only seems. 

MiCAELA 

Hither she strayed out of the night, 
She went hence into deep twilight, 
Yet her feet lead her safe and ricrht. 

o 

They spin in silence. Piepowder comes back, walking and 
calling softly through the dark. 

Piepowder 

Is she here ? Lionella, stay. 

For I have given my soul away 

And I must have it back or die. 

Up through the mountains toward the sky 

I climbed, where dark-leaved ilexes 

Straggle and dwindle and lastly cease. 

Firs and great rocks stand lonely: there, 

In the white noon-tide's tenuous air. 

Supine upon the slippery brown 

Warm earth and odorous, I flung down 

To see the sun blaze through the pine; 

But the sun was a tavern sign. 

The earth a great house masterless, 

The very sky, that leans to bless. 

Prisoned me in its brazen dome; 

The jade-green, arrowy torrent's foam 

Frothed lifeless underneath the fall 

As tired mimes toss the heavy ball. 

The mountain had no word, in fine. 

I left the dizzying sunshine, 

. [ 49 ] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Dropping, in oak-wood glades concealed, 

Down to a hidden grassy field 

With fragrant Hmes and poplars set, 

Whose twinkling leaves, in ceaseless fret, 

Lisp into pleasant rainy noises. 

The clamorous thicket's fiery voices 

All noon-day try the night-song o'er; 

Untouched, wide gossameres sparkle hoar 

Even till mid-morning, while the thrush 

Unfrighted, from a swaying bush 

Rolls her clear descant rich and shrill; 

Violet and gilded daffodil 

Border the meadow forestward. 

Once more I found the sense turned hard. 

So, being heavy, I fell asleep. 

I stood where clouds trailed o'er a steep 

Grey, sullen, trembling waste of sea : 

A strong grey wind blew ceaselessly 

Across it on me; at either hand 

Ran the long beach's printless sand, 

And the sounds strove of wind and sea; 

But the vast had no voice for me. 

I woke — blue twilight's filmy eyes 

Were empty, and the darkening skies 

Paper pricked over with a pin 

By a foolish hand. It was my sin 

To love one girl more than all earth: 

I, that was wanderer from my birth, 

My love being lost, am sick at soul; 

Where grows the herb shall make me whole ? 

Eva 

Who in the shadow walks unseen ? 

[50] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

My mother called me Peregrin', 

But in a far sea-isle, whose mart 

Was thronged with blue-eyed sailors swart, 

They named me Master Piepowder. 

Maddalena 

Why, furtive, scan the empty square, 

Messer Piepowder, in thickening light ? 

Piepowder 

Before the brown dusk blackened quite 

I hoped by whistle and by lure 

A restless eaglet to secure 

That took flight, startled, from my wrist. 

Eva 

Your chance, good subtle-tongue, is missed 
A longsome while may be to wait. 

Beneath my mother s eyes I span. 

Or broidered, set apart: 
I left her for a roving man 

To sleep upon his heart. 
But some come early, some come late. 

Where all at last must he; 
And now I wait inside hell's gate 

Till he shall lie by me. 

Piepowder 

A wind storms up from the city gate, 
Fanning the wretched straws about 
As soldiers hunt a peasant rout. 

[5-] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

MiCAELA 

Tell me your loss apart, fair youth. 

Piepowder 

A beryl, an amulet in truth, 

From my neck; hereabouts it lies. 

MiCAELA 

No search till the aging moon shall rise. 

Three queens in the tower are spinning a thready 
Over their laps it lies tangled and red. 

In the choking white sea-fog the stones drip with rime. 
And hushed is the bell that rang vespers and prime. 

— Is it finished? My fingers are wrinkled with cold ; 
We were spinning so long we must he very old. 

— A lock of the fine scarlet wool is unspent; 
But the vair on our bosoms is faded and rent. 

Strong from the void mounts the cry of the tide, 
While never sweet airs blow the cold mist aside. 

— The sun is dead, sister ; it darkens to night, 
And how shall we measure the thread without light? 

Our lamps at the stair-foot were left long ago, 
But we are too feeble to venture below. 

Piepowder 

The air, though pale with hope of light, 

Is colder than a mountain height. 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Maddalena 

The others spin, and with shut breast 
Review their stored-up thoughts. No jest : 
Your errand in my ear: stoop lower! 

Piepowder 

My bosom bore a gold sunflower, 

Good dame; though lost, the flower august 

Must not wither here in the dust. 

Maddalena 

A flower can bloom a single day: 

Man has a single Hfe, they say. 

The Christmas child is blithe and douce. 
The Pasque-child makes a holy house. 
St, John's can hear the fairy talk. 
All Hallows' with the dead can walk. 
But never honest girl was horn 
Upon a dark Good Friday morn. 

Piepowder 

Gossips, I know not what you be, 
But, 'faith, you sing not cheerfully. 
To sit and spin, how should you know 
God's birds alight and walk below. 
And oft with plumes unsinged, and dress 
Unscorched, love treads in furnaces ? 
Yon windows show a silver streak, 
When the moon tops the first house-peak 
I must be breathing country air. 

Maddalena 

Gossip, the player is debonair. 

[53] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

'Give you good even, and better tunes. 

Eva 

May dewy coolness charm your noons — 

Maddalena 

Stars show by day — 

MiCAELA 

And nights be Hght. 

The Three Spinners 

Messer Piepowder, a kind good-night. 

They gOy sttll sptnningy along the dark street. 

Piepowder 

The high heart shall not stoop to ill; 

Faith can outdare old women s lore. 

Bitter prove cure for sore. 
She has her proud life lonely to fulfil 
And I must urge my way and purge my will. 

The ardent quiet of the strong 

Is to the winds and waters dear. 

For spirits still and clear 
Only, can mirror steadily and long 
The mountains and the uncounted starry throng. 



[S4] 



ACT III 

Among the mountains. The Duchess at the door of a hut^ 
waiting under a vine-trellis hung with purple hunches; the 
shepherd's pipe is heard as the shepherd comes home. 

Duchess 

The pale, still, autumn-tasting air 

Is all too thin and cool to upbear 

Those fluttering notes, that flag and waver, 

With many a trill and plaintive quaver 

Lingering out the v^istful strain. 

So, you come back to me again. 

Dear heart and goodly, to whom each hour 

My bosom turned, as the sunflower 

Fast rooted, through diminished gyres 

Follows Hyperion's splendid fires. 

At even, my breast becomes the sea 

Where that sun sinks triumphantly 

Empurpling its pure hyaline. 

Shepherd 

Your mouth, like honeyed eglantine, 

Sweetest heart, all day thirsted for, 

I taste, and thirst for it the more : 

Then touch each quivering eyelid thin, 

Shutting the moony ghmmer in : 

Your tender hand, that cHngs and tightens : 

Lastly, your throat, that dusks and whitens. 

Through all its firm, pale, slender length, 

[55] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

From sharp chin's grace to shoulder's strength 
Sweeter than dappled sycamore. 

Duchess 

Ruddy curls, bronzed and burnished o'er, 
The sun and wind that in you played 
Together, have left you disarrayed 
With memories of the pine forest. 

Shepherd 

Linger a moment on my breast. 

Your pale red lips are tremulous fire, 

I am the phoenix' unpriced pyre, 

I the lone bird aerial. 

As, for the nobler grape in fall. 

The sun, now pausing on the line, 

Turns all his being into wine. 

Your lip's touch is the lustral rite 

Transmuting mine to essence bright, 

Till from your mouth's high sacrament 

I mount all spirit. 

Duchess 

With strength unspent. 
Brown arms that close, ye hold me fast 
Where time knows neither first nor last. 
Yea, in God's fire-girt paradise. . . . 
Even while we touch it, yonder flies 
The moment, far already away. 
Tell me, how passed the slow sweet day ? 

Shepherd 

The soft sheep cropped a lawny shore, 

In face of where the torrent hoar 

[56] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Down the rock-wall of its own weight 
A dangling skein drops fine and straight. 
To-night I could not hear its rush, 
The air sets thither; yet in the hush 
Through the deep reeds that fringe the lake 
I heard the long pale ripples break 
With a low, ceaseless, lapping noise. 

Duchess 

Came there not any wandering boys 
Up the stream's bed, intent to find 
Green-bearded filberts, or behind 
The pinfold, chestnuts glossy brown ? 
Or a strayed hunter, scrambling down 
The barren-ridged mountain-crest ? 
Or pilgrim in his earth-grey vest ? 

Shepherd 

I saw none such ; who should there be ? 

Duchess 

Who should come hither, verily? 

Shepherd 

Why question of so unHke a thing ? 

Duchess 

Because the air has seemed to sing 

All day. A far-off lute-player 

I thought — but 'twas a kind of purr 

O' the blood; the ear dreamed, as the eye 

Sees the world reel in mid-July. 

Still sit, amidst this leafy green, 

[57] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

And pause, the little words between, 
To touch your reed-stops fitfully. 
Till a beam climbs the cypress tree 
Rusty, to gild its tawny peak. 

Shepherd 

Your strong white kid was far to seek 
At noon; those hoofs, Hke agate blocks 
Polished and streaked, among sharp rocks 
They danced on upward, who so gay ? 
He paused to pasture on the way. 
Glancing bright looks, the slender head 
Lifting each instant as he fed, 
And ever in pretended fear 
Leaping steep shelves as I drew near, 
Till I must fetch a half mile round 
And come on him from higher ground. 
He will dance some day to the wolf's den. 

Duchess 

I will smoke out the grim wolf then, 

And save my wanton wanderer. 

Pallid gold of the windless air 

Blazons summer's accomplished time. 

Sing, my dear heart, and when the rhyme 

Pauses and turns with iterant passion. 

As is our comely country fashion, 

I will awake my harsher throat 

To answer on another note. 

Shepherd 

Sweetheart^ zvhen you are old and small and grey, 
And your dear voice is but a rustling sound, 

[58] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

And in the sun or by the fire all day 

You spin and tell of me to girls around, 
Tell of me only how I loved you so 
That my days breathed a%uay like April snow ; 
Tell of me to no bold girl or her lover. 
But in your deep heart murmur my name over. 

Duchess 
^ Now we love : who knows age, alas ? 

When you do pipe, beloved, I shut my eyes 

And think I hear the brook's voice and the wind, 

And when you sing, I know in Paradise 

One bird had such a note before Eve sinned : 

But when you sing and hold me, next December, 

I wonder, shall I all spring s sweets remember? 
Ah, sing and clasp me, for I wonder yet 
If Eve remembered; if you will forget! 

Hold me close, ere the good hour pass. 

Shepherd 

A white moth flits beneath the trees 
Whose crests are hushed with mysteries. 
While all the sward is barred and quaint 
With radiance cool and shadow faint. 
What filled your lonely hours of sun ? 

Duchess 

I took my tufted distaff, dun 

With carded hemp, down the thick wood 

Of gnarly ilex dark; and stood 

Where through the blue air crystalline 

[59] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

I saw old cities, hill-set, shine, 
Dark-walled, slim-towered, against the sun; 
But white-crowned flashed to southward one 
Ringed with red walls; and from the plain, 
Thin as the tinkle of sun-smit rain. 
The Angelus bell I heard, and thought 
How love is all and we are nought. 
Then I dreamed, right in purple noon, 
That music, Hke the cradle tune 
My mother might have stilled me by, 
Though ere the moon that in the sky 
Signed my birth, dwindled and was gone, 
She was asleep and under stone. 

Shepherd 

This was a dream, foolish sweet creature. 

Magic to make from things of nature. 

I know right well your Angelus-spell. 

It was the silver-tempered bell 

From the brown church's tower, that, set 

Upon our mighty flanks, is yet 

Hid by a spur from all our pass: 

There where you have heard your Christmas mass, 

And borne pink HHes, Lady-Day. 

Duchess 

Happen it did, then, as you say, 
I think 'twas nothing, for my part. 
But woke and echoed in my heart 
Forgotten dreams: one evening 
After a long day's journeying. 
When I climbed up to such a town; 
The grass was tall and green; a brown 
Fine dust was under-foot, and soft; 

[60] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Rose-red, the city hung aloft; 

Sparse olives, silver-leafed and frail, 

Tinged the declining sunlight pale 

But cast no shade. The road sv^ung on 

In vv^ide loops, narrov^ing sharp; upon 

The level last, hard by the gate 

— For it was there we had to wait 

While a rude soldier munched his bread — 

I saw, to all the eastward spread. 

Like the waves' waste in form and hue, 

Innumerous, tossing vast and blue, 

A tumbled sea of hills, all kissed 

By Hghts enmeshed of amethyst. 

These are these mountains magical; 

I dwell, enchanted, amidst them all. 

Piepowder^ out of sight^ sings the song of the three queens^ 
the lute continuing to sound through the trees as he moves en- 
tangled among the sheep-cotes. 

Duchess 
Listen ! 

Shepherd 

How late a traveller! 

Duchess 

Did you not hear the falcon stir 

His bells ? 

Shepherd 

And a dog whines thereby. 

Duchess 

Listen ! He ruffles drowsily 

His downy bosom's changing sheen. 

[6i] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Shepherd 

Aye, something has roused our peregrine. 

In the dusk wind the trees begin 

To talk together; let us go in. 

Your hand is cold as a snow-wreath. 

Duchess 

Look how the darkness Hes beneath 

The boughs, and still its tide mounts higher, 

Starward. 

Shepherd 

You shiver. You shall have fire, 
See, the first fire of the late year. 
A week ago I ranged it here 
With cedarn boughs and cinnamon 
And odorous gums from lands all sun, 
That you might kindle at our door 
On the wind-haunted threshing-floor 
The very fire should scare off harm 
Through the long rainy nights, while warm 
We are singing spring to us. 

Duchess 

Not to-night. 
The south blows warm. 

Shepherd 

This coal is alight; 
Look, as I blow the filmy ashes 
The rose-breast of it wanes and flashes. 
Touch but these leaves before we sing 
The autumnal hymn of fire-lighting. 
The wavering flame that creeps and hides 

[62] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Licks round the logs, veers and subsides, 

Tlien roaring leaps to flicker and curl 

As though a world-rose should unfurl. 

Or, in an airy jet, aspire 

Topaz, ruby, sharp sapphire, 

The accumulated treasuries all 

Of palaces ethereal. 

Poised like a living thing, it breathes. 

Laughs, and flings from its supple w^reaths 

In hot triumphant mockery 

Spark-showers toward the eclipsed sky. 

Sweet, take this bough with flames abloom 

And wake the hearth-fire in the room. 

Still listless ? Then my arm about you 

Does what I shall not do without you. 

The faggots crackle and hiss, unbound. 

And the warm light wavy, a gold embrowned, 

Plays through the shut-in, kindly place. 

Once more grow nights dearer than days. 

While the sap shrieks, the blue flames spring, 

Against my shoulder lean and sing. 

Duchess 

What you have done I cannot stay. 

The stars have marched, which met to-day, 

Since on their road God set them first. 

Sing you. I cannot if I durst. 

Shepherd 

O presence holy 

Of divine unrest. 
Virginal, lowly. 

To thine unmemoried breast 

[63] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

With faith secure 
The world's rejections 

Kindly thou takesty 
Man's best perfections 

Only thou makest 
Utterly clean and pure. . . . 

Duchess 

Hark, the dogs ! Knocking at the door ! 
Yet still I will not cross the floor 
Nor lift the latch to summoning fate. 

Shepherd 

What, you are feverous ! It is late : 

The wandering voice we heard — I come ! — 

Would ask the road or beg a crumb. 

Your brow and palm are moist and cool. 

Cling not, dear heart; take you that stool 

Screened in the chimney corner dim, 

For I must open indeed to him. 

The dogs are waking: Silver, Tray, 

List how they clamour, Blanche and Stray! 

Piepowder 

A good night, friends; your mountain is high. 

Have you clean straw for such as I, 

A loaf's end, and, from shaggy-shanks, 

A cup of milk ? For meed, my thanks; 

Then, ere we sleep, at tune and song 

A match, so it were not too long. 

Shepherd 

In a good hour for us you came. 

Will you not sit and watch the flame ? 

[64] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

I thought to have crossed the pass to-night 

But found it in the owlet light 

Dangerous. Your bale-fire drew me back, 

When I had lost the plainer track 

And among sheep-cotes groped astray, 

To he by it content till day: 

Then, as beneath your door I spied 

Flames' changeful Hght, and heard inside 

Singing, hard on a softer tone — 

But your companion is gone. 

Shepherd 

Sir, eye not so these empty bowls; 
A pipkin simmers on the coals 
Within there, which we must await. 

Piepowder 

Kind sylvan folk, to come so late 
Is not to earn so large ^ share 
Of shepherd's peace and shepherd's fare. 
Three queens in the tower are spinning a thread. 

Shepherd 

Is it lute, voice, or song, or all, 

Has that ambiguous, haunting fall. 

Like an old nurse's lullaby 

To a child born too sad to cry ? 

Piepowder 

I learned it long since, as I think. 

From three strange spinners, by the brink 

[65] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Of a town fountain. Sharp folk they, 
But kindly, with wise words to say 
To whoso neither fawns nor fears. 

Shepherd 

Learned they their wisdom from the years ? 

Piepowder 

Each, rather, from her bosom deep. 

Eva's was moulded so to keep 

A tired child warm : childlike her thought. 

But Maddalena's lore was bought: 

Her eyes have lost their languishment, 

And round the shrunk shape, shaken and bent. 

Softer than ermine, hangs her hair. 

Shepherd 

What is the other who spins there ? 

Piepowder 

In her aspect two habits stand, — 

Virginity, and long command. 

As who an abbess should have been. 

The Duchess passes to go out under the vine-trellis. 

Shepherd 

Where goes my love ? What has she seen ? 

Duchess 

Nothing. The night is hushed and dark. 

Dew patters from the branches stark. 

[66] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

I would fain taste the silent air 
Dark, cool as is deep well-water. 

Shepherd 

They talk of many things, no doubt, 

Down in the cities all about ? 

Piepowder 

Aye, of themselves, then of the court, — 

Each other's sins duly report. 

Shepherd 

I saw the Duke once. I am told 

That since his wife died, he grows old. 

Piepowder 

The Duke was never married — nayj 

Madonna Lionella Hves; men say 

She sickened in her palace fair 

And tranced Hes, love-havened, there. 

Shepherd 

Yet I remember how it was said 

When the great Duke died, this should wed 

His child, who no way else might take 

The realm that for her mother's sake 

Whom he so loved, he would have for hers. 

Piepowder 

That intent, common talk avers; 
But though his dying wish was sore 
His child was not deUvered o'er 
Loveless, unloved, to wedlock strait : 
The royal bird must choose, to mate. 

[67] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Shepherd 

Does the Duke love her, so to pine ? 

Piepowder 

I think he loved, by a sure sign, 

That never pledge nor promise lay 

Betwixt them, till that sorry day 

Which cost men's eyes their Duchess' face, 

And cost the Duke all life's dear grace. 

Yet may it be Hes, all said of her. 

Shepherd 

Please you to sup, good wayfarer ? 
Seethed with all spices, here is kid. 
White bread, cream by the cool wave hid 
All noontide, dark in earthen crock. 
Where wind-swept grasses ripple and rock. 
And here are grapes of silvery green 
With sunrise flushed, the bloomy sheen 
Of others globed purple; and sweet, 
Cold, and a Httle crisp to eat. 
Tender figs, dun and violet. 
Pearled over with night's freshness yet; 
Firm curd-balls snowy, and last, a few 
Green, velvet almonds, milky-new. 
Dainties more rare we lack; here not 
Flushed peach, nor freckled bergamot, 
Nor vermeil pomegranate, alas ! 
Such ripen not thus far up the pass. 

Piepowder 

Than Salomon we are more blest; 

His supper Balkis never dressed, 

[68] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Nor yet the black-browed Shulamite : 
But does our hostess fast to-night ? 

Duchess 

I have drunken milk : I want no more. 

Shepherd 

Is no wine, sweetheart, in our store ? 
The unfrequent guest more worthily 
To honour, let us merry be. 

Piepowder 

Great-bellied flasks, that nought may lack. 

Be here. 

Shepherd 

This, Roman tongue calls black 
But we up here, red wine; beside 
Sits pale, sweet, sleepy, amber-eyed 
Vintage of Orvieto, whose Dome 
Gilds the rich clusters round its home. 



Piepowder 

Still do you taste neither of these ? 

Shepherd 

She is half-way a Sienese. 

Those hold, the best of country wine 

Is that warm, darker brewage fine 

That in the vats leaps hot and red 

By Montepulciano's head. 

[69] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

Men have strange customs over-sea. 
One kind takes pleasure curiously 
When the wine lightens in the glass, 
To name kind dame or winsome lass, 
And in her honour to drink about 
As Romans poured libation out. 
Stately, grave, scarce-seen shepherdess, 
I drink your health in humbleness. 

Duchess 

Though, wanderer, I may not pay 
Your courtesy in the same way, 
Because to-night I fast, your grace 
Will let my thanks supply the place. 

Shepherd 

You are a lute-pIayer, I see. 

The oaten pipe suits best with me. 

Yet, not unmindful whom you follow, 

Nor how the cruel bright Apollo 

Once served poor fluting Marsyas, 

While, hidden in the ripe, tall grass, 

Old, kind Pan heard heaven's clear notes 

And limped back sorrowful to his goats, 

Furry brown fauns, white Dryades, 

Weeping, obscure among the trees : — 

I am still for trial, as you invited. 

Our prize shall be of gold hair plighted, 

A bracelet, woven from a soft tress 

While we sing, by this shepherdess. 

And as she plaits the subtle braid 

She shall pronounce a judgment weighed. 

[70] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

Agreed, but little does it fit 

In the deep chimney-shade she sit. 

Shepherd 

Yet Hes the fire-Hght on her hands. 

Piepowder 

They play among the golden strands 

Like doves in the Hesperian tree. 

So, since the essay took start from me, 

Set you the pace. Arcadian. 

Shepherd 

Mistress, when you weary grow 

Of your royal giving. 
Have no fear for me, that know 

But one good tn living. 

Speak sad words without a frown, 
Then, untouched of sorrow. 

Kiss my heavy eyelids down; 
They will not wake to-morrow. 

Piepowder 

Now I halt after, if I can. 

— Whither, stripling, runs your way 

Into deepening night? 

— Sweet, I follow hard on day. 

Overtaking light. 

— Dusty-foot, the wind is chill 

In the trees above. 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

— Harbour lies where, past the hill. 

Eddying marsh-lights move. 

— Thick-set stars will mock your pain. 

Until dawning rest. 

— That desire which men call vatn. 

Is of all things best. 

Duchess 

If sweeter basil be, or rue, 

Is a point, who may answer to ? 

The hollow lute awake again. 

And teach your oat a soother strain. 

Shepherd 

I know no descant; all my skill 

Leaves me at forthright plain-song still. 

Piepowder 

Love me to-day, while roses are falling. 
And faint from the cypresses birds are a-calling, 
For the rose zvill be past, the song be forgotten, 
And this eager flesh dust ere a green tree be rotten. 
Love me to-day ere the passion pass over 
And the dead love's perfume be forgot of the lover; 
Love me while pleasure is fragrant and warm. 
For love like a bird can outsoar the swift storm. 
And to-day, though arms slacken and fevered lips tire. 
Love is singing aloft in the seraphim-quire. 

Shepherd 

I cannot counter to such art, 

To hush the breath, and stir the heart: 

Take you the bright hairs implicate. 

[72] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

How should I grudge a flower to fate 
When the whole rose-garden is mine ? 

Duchess 

Let loose my hand, your arm untwine ! 

Nay, I was well whereas I was. 

Piepowder 

How the old images repass ! 

Say, deftest weaver of bright things, 

Have you no cunning with the strings ? 

I did not think God had graced two 

Women's small heads with this self hue. 

Gold honey-coloured; so soft its weight, 

So rich its sweets inviolate. 

So live it curls and stirs, awaking 

The ancient wound to set that aching! 

Duchess 

You give me, God, a grievous part. 
But I must do what bids my heart, 
I cannot else. The lute, then, friend ! 
Long since I had some skill to bend 
Less sunburnt fingers on the frets. 
Is it so — and so .? How one forgets ! 

Welladay! 

Love IS a tyrannous lord, 
How shall I worship accord. 
Or set my feet in his way? 

Piepowder 

O heart superb, are you found here ? 

O littlest comrade and most dear; 

[73] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Close, hand, on mine; gird up, slight form, 
To dare the sun-shower and the storm. 
To ford the loud stream, swim the deep, 
And by the roadside fire to sleep. 
To watch the horizon's hill-cloven rim 
As we mount upward, upward swim 
All round us, till we pluck the rose 
That loves the silence of the snows. 
Shall we not go at birds' first stir ? 

Duchess 

You forget, Messer Piepowder. 

Piepowder 

I had forgot. Shepherd, your grace; 

My brain was dizzy for a space. 

Yet we may sit here the night through 

And talk across the fire as do 

All old friends .? When the last cocks crow 

I will take up my lute and go. 

You are the master, you give leave .' 

Shepherd 

Stay ever, if so she will not grieve. 

She is my blood, my breath; what should, 

Save her desire, become my good ? 

Duchess 

An hour long, or a life long, stay! 

When you go, goes my heart away. 

You breathe the unknown of dreams : your eyes 

Lighten through time's immensities. 

[74] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

And woofed songs of sorrowful laughter, 
And sound of dead feet following after, 
I waken. 

Duchess 

In enchantment deep 
Long laid, my spirit shakes off her sleep. 
And plumes her mighty wings, and light 
Poises herself for sunward flight. 
Her pinions rustle and unfurl. 

Piepowder 

There spoke again my radiant girl. 

Duchess 

O long-beloved, O kind and dear. 
How can I thus depart ? Yet hear 
The quiring call from peak to peak. 
The way of love is still to seek ; 
And my heart owns the skyey spell. 
The secret incommunicable, 
Therefore I go whilst you abide. 

Shepherd 

So — may I speak now ? I have tried 
Listening the spoken word, to know 
The unsaid things you uttered so. 
Your noble nature shrinks to wound 
Mortally, something helpless found 
And leave it in the dark to moan. 
But you being gone, I am not alone; 
For all the hours of all our days 

[75] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Sit by me, company my ways; 

The peace of hopes once satisfied, 

Pride of possession — O never pride 

Had such rich banquet as affords 

My store, of memory's unsunned hoards ! 

I shall want long to tell them all. 

Always I knew this must befall; 

How should a wordless creature, mute 

As powers that swell the flowers and fruit, 

Fit but to watch the woolly herd, 

How should I mew a strong-winged bird ? 

In your august and splendid soul 

Never could such fill up the whole. 

Or such supply your high heart's food. 

Therefore, in full glad gratitude, 

only love and stainless sweet. 
Let me a last time kiss your feet 
That they not weary nor be cold ! 

Duchess 

There is a doctrine old, 

There is a rule austere. 

Passing I have no fear 

Although the road is paved with pain: 

To want is more than to attain. 

1 go in humble reverence 

Even by your teaching, shepherd, hence, 
Leaving you, in exchange, a token; 
God's love breaks not as mine has broken. 
Wayfarer, on the open road 
Your tireless strength shall know no load, 
Companioned by your singing heart. 
My soul and I must dwell apart: 

[76] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

We have to learn, being all untaught, 
The miracles by silence wrought, 
And by the soHtude that Hes 
Inside the bosom. 

Piepowder 

You are more wise 
Than aught quite mortal, and me, a fool, 
You have sent back to bitter school. 

Duchess 

No bitterness shall tinge, I know, 

Messer Piepowder, your dusky glow. 

Piepowder 

You cannot go out in night alone. 

Shepherd 

Nor, solitary, try ways unknown. 

Duchess 

Fie, children, frightened of the dark ! 

I have ranged this mountain, when the lark 

On her nest shivered, for lambs new born, 

Or an aged dog the wolf had torn. 

When chill day whitens, we three divide. 

With you, for comrade and for guide 

Go patient strength, and constant will. 

Shepherd 

All my life is your service still. 

That the unguessed fire burn strong and high 

Lest you feel cold and know not why. 

[77] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duchess 

You, bear aloft your proper fire, 

Unappeased, unattained desire; 

Nor brow nor cheek holds more of light 

Than windy clouds a moonlight night, 

Beauty rides high, untouched, austere, 

Far. 

Piepowder 

Nay, confessed in presence here. 
You are a heaven-born stray on earth 
Seeking the country of your birth; 
Angels, your first playmates, attend you. 

Duchess 

Farewell : a sunshine day God send you. 
Now all is said that may beseem, 
And look, the east begins to dream ! 



[78] 



ACT IV 

A loggia, opening on a high terrace: below may be seen the 
palace gate. The seven Waiting Gentlewomen. 

Ippolyta 

You have the gem, dear Orsola, 

Safe ? 

Orsola 

In my breast, Ippolyta. 

Laodomia 

Mafalda holds the girdle's gold 

That so long empty lay, and cold. 

ISOTTA 

Its daedal stones, cleft never apart. 
Soon shall be warmed against her heart, 

Arianna 

Here is the deep-furred pall. 

FlAMMETTA 

Her state 
She will not assume ere at the gate 
Showing herself, when all the poor 
Her mooned beauty caress secure. 

[79] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Mafalda 

How fair she comes! 

Ippolyta 

The Duke is by. 

Arianna 

What if the marriage song we try ? 

The Seven Gentlewomen 
First when Phosphor trembled, lucent-pale^ 

Ere dawns rose had flowered across the sky. 

When a chill wind restlessly 
All the jasmine's sweets had shed 

And withdrawn days cloudy veil, 
''Open sweet eyelids, '^ cried we, ''leave your maiden bed 

We have cherished. 
And your white dreams, in the sun s beams at last to hind 
The noble heart fast to the constant mind!'* 

Duchess 

Good-morrow again, hearts debonair, 

Whose excellency can declare 

No tongue, nor compass any mind, 

Nor time on earth your likeness find. 

Look, in your grace my soul I dress 

To-day, you lend me worthiness. 

Arianna 

Love unearthly and without spot 
The forms of I and Thou knows not; 
We vibrate to your strong control 
In diapason full, one soul. 

[80] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duke 

Lingering beside this marble seat, 

Maids, break not off: your cadence sweet 

The scaly lizard charms : his throat 

Tremulous, quivers to the note. 

With lisp and plash in mossy urn 

The fountain every fall and turn 

Reiterates, echoing plaintively 

To hollow^ lilies shaken with spray. 

The seven Gentlewomen, withdrawn in the loggia, sing among 
themselves or talk by snatches. 

The Seven 
Sun, old sun, upon the small gold head 

By its heavy tresses overweighed. 
And the beryl-inwoven braid. 

Rain a glory, shroud the bride. 
All her goodly white and red, 

Ardent, fairer than the pearl, and steady-eyed. 
From our side 
Secure she goes, for love she knows, who sole can bind 
The noble heart fast to the constant mind. 

Duke 

You lost, the spark of soul was gone. 

The huge world's substance seemed withdrawn, 

Till among shadowy accidents 

Hollow I walked in blind intents. 

Even through the battle's straining force 

Where man cleaves man, horse tears at horse, 

I paused to question why I strove 

And scorned the useless end thereof; 

[8r] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Put ofF the armour's bright inlay, 
Turned, and from triumph rode away. 
At Milan, to my young advice 
The Emperor's self paid honour twice. 
He walked, an arm about my neck; 
There hung this toy, my breast to deck 
With Jason's quest, Medea's wrong; 
I was glad in it one hour long. 

ISOTTA 

Forth, for winter is past. 
Sweethearts, at last. 
Clouds in the curded blue 
Sail whitely aloft. 

Rains rustle soft 
Shimmering with sun-streaks through. 

Ippolyta 

Crocus and tulip trim 
Their chalices brim 
As lessening nights allow. 

Tender and ardent green, 
Rose-blooms between. 
Fledges the youngling bough. 

Duke 

At last God chose I go to Rome, 
And in the shade of the great Dome 
Hold with the Pope some conference; 
Great prelates dyed the audience 
Blood-red and Tyrian; cap at knee 
Princes assented, I and he 
Having our say out, much at one; 

[82] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

And when the lordly farce was done 
And I was sickening for home, 

— For it stinks in my nose, does Rome — 
"Yet I will speed you," said the Pope, 
"As Pontiff," and I saw a hope 

Where other talisman was none : 

A mass to my intention 

Said by a saint in that vast gloom 

Which shrines the prince-apostle's tomb. 

Genial, the great Pope shook his head: 

"What should saints do at Rome?" he said, 

Scanning with humorous eye the throng 

Where prides and pomps and lusts showed strong; 

Yet through gold, purple, scarlet, lay 

An ashen thread, Franciscan grey. 

He signed, and cat-like stepped to call 

The Order's gaunt shrewd General. 

— One saint, a parish priest, might be 
In swarming, foul Trastevvere. 
Fetched by a gorgeous church-steward, 
At nightfall next, I pressed him hard 
To do mine and the good Pope's will. 
White, hushed, and meek, he checked me still: 
"I can ask not God for goods, if aught 

Less than all good be blessing-fraught. 

So your heart's wish is His will too, 

Each instant fills the soul of you." 

He blessed me and went; each day again 

His prayers Hke rain have fallen since then; 

Not any more I saw his face. 

Yet in my heart sprang herb-of-grace. 

And I have been content to wait. 

Secure God lured me back my mate, 

[83] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Touched your arm, led feet unbenighted 
Though ways should wind and inns invited; 
And for love's sake, unwearied 
I have ruled my people as in your stead. 

Laodomia 

Orange bees all noon 

fVill drowse, and a moon 
Will dream in the amber west; 
But warm hours drift away, 
Night swallows day; 
Ton shall pass with the rest. 

Duke 

I rode, that day of earliest frost, 
After a wounded stag, till, lost 
My way in mountain fastnesses, 
In icy cell an anchoress 
Sheltered the deer, but succoured me. 

Duchess 

That day is safe in memory. 

Duke 

In cloth of frieze, your hair close-bound, 
Folded your dehcate brows around, 
Your white feet as the white frost cold. 
You stood, like the worn goddess old 
On that last Roman-bought relief. 
And for surprise, and pity, and grief, 
My calmed soul turned sick and hot. 

Duchess 

I was at peace, though you were not. 

[84] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duke 

How often I came again, how prayed. 

Before you left your horrid shade. 

Your savage rocks, reluctant came 

To your high place and your great name 

And the splendid ornaments thereof. 

Arianna 

Death's hand strikes on the door, 
Charon hts oar 
Plies where the light ghosts move. 
White flesh wastes in the dust. 
Gold hair will rust 
Though lilies sweeten above. 

Duchess 

I came, for these were here, and love. 

Orsola 

Kind is our lord love's might 
But brief is delight; 
Live in the hurrying day! 
Fragrant as April air. 
Supple and fair, 
Laugh and love while ye may! 

FlAMMETTA 

Idle and light, this Hkes me ill. 

Mafalda 

The ancient song falls sweetlier, still. 

His is the sign 

That we follow after, 
By tears for wine 

[8s] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

And sighing for laughter 
He IS known divine. 

The Seven 

Welladay! 

How shall one service accord^ 
Or set her feet in the way 
Of love, our tyrannous lord? 

Duchess 

Ah, my dear lord, the dusty ways. 

The mountain sheep-cote's earthher grace, 

The wood that star-dawn never knew. 

Were stages on the road to you. 

Duke 

You are the same she who one day 
Held converse of love's perfect way 
And all the time between is nought. 
Sunk beyond speech, beyond even thought, 
Forgotten of us, unguessed of men. 

Duchess 

Not such the doctrine you spoke then. 

Though you are, my lord, no neophyte. 

Affords love's quintessential might 

Courage in this, life's ultimate proof. 

To fix another soul's behoof. 

You to guide ? . . . Love is the unplumbed green, 

Thither flows all, it is salt and clean; 

And love, the phoenix's rich pyre. 

Turns all to hieratic fire. 

So, all my life and the acts thereof 

Are parcel of this moment's love. 

[86] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Think you that if I held it shame 

To have adored twice, thrice, his name 

Holy — not held it excellence 

To have loved nobly, soul and sense, 

Should I stand robed to-day to wed ? 

Should I not be this long time dead ? 

The string accordant to my soul 

You are, the part that makes me whole; 

One blood through members fashioned like 

Flows, in our breasts the same hours strike; 

Mine are your folk, this duchy great 

My flesh cries out to as my state. 

These I would serve a long life through, 

And my sweet seven, and, dear lord, you. 

But man can serve not till he is free, 

And hard won is soul's liberty. 

In the mid-forest's chill recess 

The virtue I proved of loneliness. 

The discipline of the heart self-known, 

The grace of recollection : 

Till the ancient oaks uttered their spell 

One hour, the light turned audible; 

Till the eye, — threading the thick wood 

At noon, where slender and listening, stood 

Dark stems 'mid delicate boughs, all seen 

In a strange air, golden and green — 

Grew penetrant, felt at point to see 

Not far depths, but infinity. 

Thereafter I knew, who loves one form 

How bright soever, how white and warm 

And tender, all fairness learns to love. 

And the vision grew, winging above, 

Where lovely ideas and dreams abide, 

[87] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Delicate poesy, slumberous-eyed 
Music, the ardours of poignant life; 
So, beyond time's drift, fortune's strife, 
— Spirit and blood being stricken mute — 
Last, I saw Beauty absolute, 
One, unalloyed; in whose compare 
Our growing, perishing earthly fair 
Is as cloud-shadow on waters fleet; 
Waning nor waxing not, complete, 
Self-poised; 'mid thought's evanishings 
Stablest of perdurable things. 
I walk, since orbed that hour on me, 
Free, in that light see differently 
Perhaps. You have my doctrine, have 
My love on earth and in the grave; 
Your own so equal is in measure 
That each can give exhaustless treasure 
A life long, without bankruptcy, 
So, no debts lie 'twixt you and me. 
One thing I owe : this shining seven, 
In love than yours more perfect even, 
Shame for my sake long underwent. 
Therefore it is my fixed intent 
An hour hence at the palace gate 
Where children and old women wait 
Already, and all the town shall be 
Greeting their duchess honourably, 
That my handmaiden's names be clean 
To tell the tale of what has been. 

Duke 

Though many a swine your pearls will swill, 
My Duchess, do your gallant will. 

[88] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

I will draw up my troops at hand 
So clowns who no word understand 
With a foul word flush not your cheek. 

Duchess 

Wrong them not. To a spirit meek 

The simple heart is ever kind. 

Duke 

You shame me to a better mind; 
Say what you will, it shall be right. 

Ippolyta 

Please you, madonna, to be dight ? 
All the townsfolk already are come. 
Can you not hear the insistent hum ? 

Duchess 

Mount to the loggia, and there deck me 

Duchess and spouse, fair as men reck me. 

First kiss me, hearts. Child, your dense hair 

Lies on your neck too much. Unware 

Grown softer, are grown no whit less wise, 

Laodomia, your brown-green eyes. 

Isotta of the arched brows, 

You are pale with sitting in the house 

At virginals or broidery. 

Fiammetta's thin red mouth to me 

Sweeter than wine is. Orsola, 

Your whiter hands than cassia 

Must bind the jewel's flickering light 

Upon my brow — nay, bind it tight, 

My father's name is in the glow. 

The girdle, quick, Mafalda. So ! 

[ 89,] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Though I, now being no more free, 
Love-cinctured go contentedly, 
Still, let me pause a breath, and rest 
My head upon your fragrant breast 
Before my state I take upon. 
The momentary chill is done. 
Now clasp the heavy minever 
About my throat, than yours less fair, 
Arianna. Maids, ring me around. 
My Duke awaits, on this high ground 
The last thing I shall do alone. 

The Duchess goes down the steps, surrounded by her gentle- 
women, and crosses the lower terrace toward the stair which 
mounts from the gate. From the bench by the fountain, the Duke 
and those who join him can see but cannot hear. 

The one-time shepherd, cowled and habited in the white Car- 
thusian dress, separates from the compact and motley crowd which 
IS about the Duchess, and passing along the lowest terrace, climbs 
by narrower steps to where stands the Duke in dark dress and 
unattended. Afterwards from the same direction comes Pie- 
powder and salutes the Duke. 

Duke 

Day shadows o'er when she is gone. 
O radiant heart immaculate. 
Stronger than change, surer than fate, 
God keep me in your light ! Amen. 
Who leaves the eager, crowding men ? 

Shepherd 

That flower of all sweet eloquence. 

Mirror of wit, her Excellence 

The Duchess, I have words for her. 

[90] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duke 

Yonder from down the marble stair 
The Duchess talks with her own folk 
Freely, and when the rest have spoke, 
Father, you shall command her ear. 

Shepherd 

Let me attend her coming here. 

Duke 

Does your despatch come from afar ? 

Shepherd 

Farther beyond the farthest star 

Than that from us. God led me hither 

Who went, last night, I knew not whither. 

I thought I lay in town to assist 

But at the Blessed Eucharist 

Where the cathedral rears in air 

Its storied front above the square. 

With twisted shafts about the door 

On lions based, each grinning o'er 

A hind he rends with blood impassioned, - 

All of old sullen porphyry fashioned. 

Mass done, I drifted with the press 

Of citizens in feast-day dress 

That jostled palaceward; and, free 

While velvet stuffs and cramoisie 

Trailed down the marble, flight by flight, 

And a star shook on her brows white. 

Descending, ringed by girls, in guise 

Like pied and fluttering butterflies, 

Shone, like a dream remembered. 

That gold, that unforgotten head ! 

[91] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Duke 

Under your hood — stay, whose that song ? 

For lute and voice the strain prolong. 

Piepowder 
The faithful heart no murmurous peace requireth. 

Nor richer joy desireth 

Than leave to worship meetly. 
O love fulfilled, though two he one completely. 

Ends all love so? 

no, no, no, no ! 
Tet interfused quires consort most sweetly. 



Though passion into song can hammer sorrow. 

And discord raptures borrow. 

And faith most flourish thwarted. 
Tea, love grow heavenliest whenas loves are parted, 

Ends all love so? 

O no, no, no, no I 
For love denied fares ever lonely-hearted. 

Your Excellence, when, this holiday. 
The whole poor world has leave to stray, 
Hear graciously a poor lute-player 
Who rests, your constant good-luck-prayer. 

Duke 

Is the speech at the gateway done ? 

Piepowder 

Our Duchess-lady had scarce begun. 
The throng so flocked and cried, to bless 
Her strength refound and loveHness. 

[92] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

What, shepherd, so you did find God, 
As you were sent ? 

Shepherd 

By paths untrod 
I have reached, at last, love's perfect way. 
What fetched you hither on this day, 
Messer Piepowder? 

Piepowder 

To look upon 
Once more those emeralds, and be gone 
Ever on my tireless march again; 
Great gladness bought with such small pain. 
Highness, you stand displeased and loth. 
But the same power that called us both 
Calls the stork back from Pyramids 
When spring first opens rose-flushed Hds, 
And in bright streams distils the snow. 

BUKE 

Your excellent good wills I know. 
And take your hands each, if I may; 
I am more moved than I can say. 
Yet if you go my thanks are doubled — 
I would not have the Duchess troubled. 

Piepowder 

She is worth, kind lord, a lustier faith. 

Who proves not, loves not, the word saith. 

She who would nor eat nor drink with me 

Owning another loyalty, 

She who has deigned become your spouse 

[93] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

To bear sons to your princely house, 
She, whom this monk is jealous of 
For God and not for any love 
Touched humanly, — O, Duke, you miss 
The very, unmatched, pearl she is, 
By which rock-veined soft gold is dust, 
If in your deep heart's treasury, trust 
Be so a-wanting! 

Duke 

Truth indeed. 
But the fault springs from bitter need. 
Lovinor a visitant high and wise 
How shall I find grace in her eyes ? 

Piepowder 

So as in God's eyes, even by grace, 

And grow by gazing on her face. 

That, brother austere, why venture seeing ? 

No adept you of vivid Being, 

Preaching pain's perfect alchemy. 

Shepherd 

I would teach immortal ecstasy. 
First, I would hold her ear with song. 
Comrade, my pipe is lost since long, 
Touch you your lute, but wistfully. 
And let my poor weak cunning try 
Again the tender dawn-song over. 

An hour before the weeping day 

Had fired the white and green. 
Three Maries took the garden way, 

[94] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

And one was Magdalene. 
They talked of great doors barred and locked 

And nobody astir. 
They found an empty cave, that mocked 

The fine lawn and the myrrh. 
Tet one tear-bltnded girl did meet'- 

She thought, the gardener ; 
She fell to kiss his wounded feet : 

^'Mary!'' he said to her. 

Pray, were not that the worthiest lover 

For the white soul ? Then I should say, 

— I have rehearsed it day by day : 

All things go by, and change, and are no more, 

And that can never be which was before. 

The perfect kiss of perfect lovers, the hour 

Which is an amorous lifetime's fieriest flower 

Withers, the instant fleets, the love may range 

Or die, for what shall be sure, except change ? 

Then from this tragic and tumultuous sea. 

This refluent waste of mutability. 

Where we lie drowning, palsied feet and breast, 

Or drift, where nothing stable is to rest. 

Is there no rescue ? Yea. One walks dry-shod 

On the shiftino; waves to take us : He is God. 

And all the crash and thunder of the sea 

Turns to the silence of His constancy, 

When we find, lying close upon His breast, 

That the wheel's centre, absolute, is at rest. 

Exiles we wander, stubborn sons of Eve, 

Striving the grey day's burdens to deceive, 

And to the night's hot languors to afford 

Rehef, in vain, all vain, not knowing, O Lord, 

[95] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Thou didst create us for Thyself, and we 

Can for our souls find rest only in Thee. 

But O how poor, how dull is sense, 

How strait, to measure the immense, 

How dark, to scan deep space withdrawn, 

When in the pallid air of dawn 

To seek the bride, the Heavenly Spouse 

Comes to the dim and low-browed house! 

The vigilant soul, that when He knocks 

Opens, shall find her Master's locks 

Damp with chill dew, His wounded feet 

With spikenard and camphire sweet. 

O now not hers to watch and miss. 

The Master comes and calls for His. 

Along the pleached herby walk 

Rose-girt, she goes in tender talk 

With frankincense about her shed; 

She hears the stir above her head 

Of unseen wings, presences holy 

Henceforth to wait upon her lowly 

And at her will tune their bright throats 

In rapturous descant, their own notes 

Seraphic, which they used to sing 

Age-long and sleepless, — echoing 

From the pearl-gated city white 

Firm-stablished upon chrysolite. 

Yea, and that glorious city has come down 

Decked like a bride; the Lamb reigns from His throne ! 

For where the clustered shafts that never tire 

Lift the far, shadowy vaulting to aspire. 

And through the hushed, warm, odorous dusk the eyes 

Mark, far aloft, bluer than deep noon skies, 

Or decked in ardent reds past day-set's glories, 

[96] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Ranged round, the potentates of saintly stones : 

When, at the hours on either edge of night, 

The sapphire panes blaze with their proper light 

Unearthly, when the vast space tremulous 

Grows with deep plaintive song melodious, 

That turns and falls and mounts to sudden cry 

As I have seen a bird in great winds fly: 

When the pale tapers ray their pointed fires, 

When the orient incense wreathes in thickening spires 

Or filmy smokes, evermore upward bearing 

A thousand grieved prayers in their heaven-faring: 

When, stiff with gold and scarlet, jewel-sown. 

The priest invests pomp the Lord would not own, 

The sad world's gifts in homage brought too late 

To Him who went but once in purple state. 

Yet is Kings' King and Emperors' Emperor 

A.nd reigns in splendour ever and ever more: 

When hearts are hushed, and eyes are veiled, alone, 

Organs and quires checking their jubilant tone, 

Then the sharp sacring-bell shrills out to tell 

What overhead the bourdon's heavy knell 

Gives on — the word through the wide careless town. 

This IS my Body: for God has come down. 

Even the fair Christ that supped with His beloved 

Stands on the altar-stone in Presence proved, 

And all the throng of bygone years and ways 

Rings Him around, deepening the incense-haze. 

Salt sweat, tears, blood, all anguish spirits have borne, 

Flames of triumphant hopes, or joys forlorn. 

All men aspired to, sought or dreamed or planned. 

He holds in the hollow of His pierced hand; 

While, seen as rays around His dazzling brows. 

Muster the saints and servants of His house. 

[97] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Since, then, so brief and evil is our day 
And such delight harbours love's perfect way, 
O, if you love, must it not stand approved 
You will turn thitherward those feet beloved ? 

Piepowder 

The people, who as hushed have been 
As before storms the wood-folk green, 
Murmur and stir under the winds 
That blow about their startled minds. 
Here come three ancient spinners, who 
Shall tell us all the discourse through. 

Duke 

I will stand back; set them to talk. 

Maddalena 

Bless me — not one step more I walk ! 

Eva 

Sit here. These gentlemen are good. 

MiCAELA 

And player's hosen and white monk's hood 
Own to the distaff kinship near. 

Maddalena 

Messer Piepowder, what halts you here ? 

Piepowder 

What brings you, gossip ? 

Eva 

To see her wed 
Who has come back as from the dead. 

[98] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

Pray you, for us resume her speech, 

For we were out of heariffg's reach. 

Maddalena 

Who knows her matter ? 

Eva 

Nay, not I. 
Some such perhaps as stood close by, 
For the throng pressed with murmurous noise 
And buzzed above her singing voice. 

Micaela 

No soul divined her gracious words. 
Ears not attuned to such high chords 
Hear nothing, or a tuneless babble. 

Eva 

Fawning on her came all the rabble. 

Micaela 

They kissed her hands, her garmenting. 

Maddalena 

Surely, she is a blessed thing. 

Piepowder 

Mark how the single eye can hit 

And simple heart sees more than wit. 

Duke 

Stir not, good souls, but spin and rest. 

[99] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

The Three Spinners 

Our duty is our lord's behest. 

Duke 

You have loved the Duchess long, and for 

Her goodly father's sake of yore ? 

Maddalena 

I mind her lady mother, who died. 

She was of Siena, narrow-eyed 

And dolorous-Hpped. The wind's caress 

Breathed languorous on her loveliness. 

Her long, slim fingers frail, showed flame 

Against the sun: her delicate name, 

Monna Alessandra, on all men's tongue 

Grew Fiordespina; and poets sung 

As Biancofiore her soul-fraught flesh. 

How slept the sun in her locks' pale mesh ! 

Eva 

Where our sweet lady's feet have been 
Violets must stud the enamel green 
For she walks chastely; her large eyes fair, 
Tinged with cold green of sea-water, 
Set singing, where they rest, one string, 
And the heart vibrates, worshipping. 

MiCAELA 

Highness, God sometimes makes a creature 
Of heavenly stuff" though human feature, 
Aloof from even the scent of sin. 
Illuminate by a light within. 
To such are penitence, grief, regret, 

[ 100 ] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Alien, illusory, fiend-beset: 

Woe to whoso offends them, woe ! 

God sets their feet where they should go. 

Duchess 

Was I an hour ? The kindly throng 

In strong love, confidence more strong, 

Made me their voice and minister 

To my girls. Messer Piepowder! 

God give you grace of the wise feet 

That fetched you hither to make complete 

This glad day's gladness. I take each hand 

Nay, kiss my two cheeks — nay, but stand ! 

Are we not comrades, through all years 

Fellow-adepts and high compeers 

In that good order of dusty-foot 

War cannot scatter or sloth uproot ? 

Dear spouse and lord, here I commend 

My bosom- jewel to you for friend; 

And this third, where but two have been, 

Pray you admit, dear Peregrin'. 

You shall initiate of your craft. 

Teach him the lost word night winds waft, 

And that the green-streaked torrents cry, 

And the great silence of the sky. 

But through the dark months ominous 

You and your lute shall sit with us. 

Solace with song the rain-bound days. 

Honour our palace with your bays. 

Duke 

The spell is broken whereby he drew her 

But it shall call his spirit to her. 

[ lOI ] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Piepowder 

Say, Duchess, are your soft white feet 
Safe in the way of all most sweet ? 
Nay, speak not; on your folded Hps, 
And in your eyes' sudden eclipse 
I read, and knowing, I am content. 

The seven Gentlewomen return with garlands to fetch the 
spouse. 

Arianna 

It is time your Excellencies went; 
The hall fills up with wedding guests, 
But the Duke dreams and the day rests. 

Duchess 

Aye. Sleeps, then, dear Piepowder, a hope 

Till snow-clouds first blanch the blue cope. 

Duke 

Good friends, farewell. Have me at heart. 
You, too, farewell, who stand apart. 

The Seven 
Roses, flushing faint auroral white. 

Others heavy-headed, gold and red. 

In old gardens nourished. 
Frail narcissus, troubled szueet 

As a pale saint^s dreams at night. 
Bay leaves crushed to glad the dust before her feet. 

All odours meet. 
Bring and strew, only no rue. Here time shall hind 
The noble heart fast to the constant mind. 

[ 102] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Shepherd 

Stay, tender-heart, dear brightness, stay! 

Maddalena 

You that cry, what have you to say ? 

Shepherd 

O I would woo her love to God, 

Leading her where His pierced feet trod ! 

Eva 

Let her alone ! A baby's hand 
Groping upon her bosom bland 
Will teach her more of God on high 
Than all your stored divinity. 

Maddalena 

Let her alone ! The sweet Lord said 
By love alone all debts were paid. 
Her love is infinite: He knows. 

MiCAELA 

Let her alone ! The Spirit blows : 
His wisdom is immutable, 
So are His ways inscrutable, 
Yet souls endure unto the end. 
And such are saved. 

Piepowder 

They speak truth, friend. 
Whither your way ? The sun swings down. 

[103] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Shepherd 

My convent is a mountain's crown. 

God's angels there take up abode. 

Piepowder 

For me the secular Roman road 
That runs, a dusty shimmering band, 
From sea to sea slantwise the land. 
Gossips, I will bring you a new song 
When I come next. 

The Three Spinners 

Be that not long; 
God bless your merry heart. 

Maddalena 

The heart 
That laughs must ache. 

Eva 

'Tis the wise part, 
For sorrow knocks at each man's door 
But mirth lies liefest with the poor. 

MiCAELA 

He that hath played for a great stake 
His heart may ache but shall not break. 

The Three Spinners 

Good son, God keep you in his sight. 

Shepherd 

Farewell. I have far to go ere night. 

Will you not turn to follow God, 

[ 104 ] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Even to endure the yoke and rod ? 

For He exacts abjection first 

But by grey Penance, Peace is nursed. 

Piepowder 

Who can redeem his brother's soul ? 

We shall meet, may be, at the goal, 

Though now our several ways divide 

Even as straight lines, once crossed, run wide. 

If yours is hot and rough and long, 

Go with God's blessing and a song. 

Shepherd 

I wish you song, and blessing too, 

Cool to sick hearts as breathing dew. 

Piepowder 

Free, strong, and bearing, not in vain, 
A not-intolerable pain. 
Out of the scents and smoke and smother 
Alone I go to the great mother. 
Warm earth's green bosom shall give me rest 
And strength the grey sea's heaving breast. 
The winnowing winds shall search my soul. 
When solemn hours resume the pole 
And pale-stemmed lines of poplars gleam 
That sigh and whisper along a stream, 
Couched by the great road's glimmering white 
I shall behold and hear all night 
Along the skyey battlement 
The starry sentinels ambient. 
Where down the dark o'er-beetling walls 
Arcturus to Antares calls 
[105] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

Till, to pass on the mighty cry, 
Aldebaran climbs up the sky. 
Then, while cold night-airs drowse and stir, 
My heart shall keep the watch with her. 
So shall forever-young desire, 
Quickened and warmed by his own fire, 
Following the still-advancing goal, 
Guard silence in the enfranchised soul. 



[io6] 



INTERPRETATION 

Of this mystery, as of all, there are divers interpre- 
tations. The Duchess signifies Nature Benign, as may be 
guessed from the Shepherd's first song in recognition of 
her. The Wayfarer is the poet, for whom she is forever 
the Beloved, but yet less dear than the abstract and the 
eternal. The Shepherd is the natural man, for v^hom 
she is ail that is, until she shovv^s him God, and then he 
seeks her no more save as he v^ould bring her into the 
glorious manifestation of redemption : the Duke is the 
man of science and the modern. Nature is his mate and 
his helper, by alliance v^ith w^hom the sufferings of the 
masses shall be allayed, and all pov^er reach attainment, 
all activity accomplishment. 

Or, otherwise construed, the Duchess may be the 
human soul, that seeks in this way and that after perfec- 
tion. The Wayfarer's is the life of the imagination and 
of reason ; it is chilly, exacting, and barren : the Shep- 
herd's is the life of the affections and beauty, and, as 
Faustus knew, the spirit turns to that only when foiled 
and weary. Neither can it satisfy always. The noble 
mind still feels the call to adventures and ideals too high 
for it, and finds content at last in a life of complexity 
and ceaseless endeavour. Equally and rightfully mated, 
in a world of duties and responsibilities, of friendships 
and mutual loyalties, the Duchess looks for faithful 
companionship to the Wanderer, but she does not even 
recognise the Shepherd under his white hood. 

[107] 



THE WAY OF PERFECT LOVE 

A third reading shall be for the nonce enough. The 
three Spinners stand for the wisdom of the world in its 
better no less than its baser aspects; their whimsical 
favour is won by quiet scorn, their profound comprehen- 
sion is just and true. The Way is Life, which each soul, 
so it seeks not ignobly, shall ultimately, in its own kind, 
find the way of perfection. 



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